Ahluwalia rakes up a ‘crisis’in action-packed House

NEW DELHI: It took just a mock security drill in the Parliament complex on Thursday for BJP MP SS Ahluwalia to make a ‘hoax call’ about yet another national security crisis, blame the Union home minister and force a noisy adjournment of the Upper House. Shivraj Patil had, to some extent, helped Mr Ahluwalia & Co to execute their action-plan smoothly by his penchant for technically-correct, and politically-incorrect response.

The Ahluwalia-Patil joint act came even as the security forces were clarifying that a security alert sounded was just a security drill. As part of the drill, the entire area was cordoned off and security personnel took positions at the peripheries.

The drill continued for about 45 minutes before the Parliament officials declared it as a drill to check the alertness of the security personnel deployed there. “It was a security drill,” joint secretary (Lok Sabha security) Kanwaljeet Deol told reporters.

Even though scores of MPs, officials and reporters were present in the complex and were watching the entire scene rather closely, if not curiously, with TV crews busy airing the security exercise, only Mr Ahluwalia got into a sudden grip of national security crisis. He rushed to the Rajya Sabha and raised the matter by interrupting the home minister who was then replying to a debate on the national security scene.

An excited Mr Ahluwalia told Mr Patil that a big crisis was on right inside the Parliament complex, with security forces on high alert, TV news channels broadcasting the scene, and therefore, resulting in panic across the country. He wanted to know what Mr Patil was doing, or rather not doing, about this national crisis.

Adding spice to the dish, Mr Patil chose to be technically correct at that ‘hour of national crisis’ by telling Mr Ahluwalia that the security arrangement in the Parliament complex did not come under his jurisdiction (as the security in the complex comes under the jurisdiction of the Lok Sabha Speaker and the Parliamentary security forces).

This politically incorrect response from Mr Patil sent Mr Ahluwalia and few BJP members up in arms, charging the home minister with irresponsibility and wondering who was responsible for the situation and in-charge of dealing with it. Trying to control the scene, the Chair then volunteered to send an officer to the office of the Lok Sabha Speaker to get a status report.

On getting feed-back from the Speaker’s office, the Rajya Sabha deputy chairman K Rahman Khan formally informed the House that it was just a routine security drill. But, this piece of re-assurance had an opposite effect on Mr Ahluwalia & Co, who then rushed to the Well of the House, saying the TV news about the security alert in Parliament complex will create panic in the country.


, and therefore, the officers in-charge of the Parliament security should immediately hold a press conference to clarify the actual position to the nation.

Despite the Chair dismissing their latest demand as uncalled for and asking them to return to their seats, Mr Ahluwalia and his colleagues kept shouting and lamenting about the crisis and the absence of a responsible response. Sensing the understanding mood of the Chair, the home minister then chose to return the complements, though belatedly, to Mr Ahluwalia by demanding an apology from him for his behaviour.

This has further enraged the protesters, resulting in a total din and an abrupt adjournment of the House. Incidentally, there have been many such security drills in the Parliament complex, ever since the terrorist attack there in 2002.