FIFTH COLUMN

Ordeal

By C K Lal

Mercifully, the millennium ended with an auspicious note. The ordeal of passengers aboard the hijacked Indian Airlines aircraft ended. However, trials of the security system of our lone international airport may just have started with it.

To be sure, security arrangements at Tribhuvan International Airport are no where near the one at Indira Gandhi International Airport of New Delhi, where security officials often behave as if the Emergency imposed by the Iron Lady after whom the airport is named is still in force. But, Kathmandu is way ahead of India’s lesser known airports like Trivandrum, or even Calcutta and Madras. Despite that, no less than the Home Minister of India had the gall to make fun of our system. Apparently, there are some sinister hidden agendas.

India is a country where most airplane hijacking have taken place. Indian Airlines is an air service that is pathologically prone to hijacking, it holds the dubious distinction of being the only world airline whose planes have been hijacked most often; once even at the strength of a cricket ball. Now contrast that with Nepal, where this particular Indian Airlines instance was the very first one in its history of international flights, and guess who should be complaining. If there is any fault of the Nepalis, probably that is limited to the fact that they didn’t treat Indian Airlines the way it should have been treated-like pariah.

It’s not just that. Indians have their second largest diplomatic establishment in the world in Kathmandu, and apparently they don’t just party. People in the know claim that Kathmandu is crawling with Indian intelligence operatives of every hue-from IB to RAW, and from Military Intelligence to CBI. Every time Nepal Police unearths anything connected with terrorism, Indian establishment is first to claim credit. When it failed, they roundly put it on the head of Nepali officials! Isn’t that downright churlish?

It is not my argument that we must not take initiatives to put our own houses in order. But, Indian security officials at TIA? Beg your pardon. They will let an elephant if only they are “entertained” appropriately. It has not been long since they allowed a number of peaks in Kargil to be occupied by terrorists, and Gurkhas had to go there to evict them. They are welcome to make a mess of their own country, but why confound the confusion here the way they did in Sri Lanka by sending what was called a “peace keeping force.”

Jesus Christ! The last week of the last year of the last century of the second millennium of the Christian Era gave us some nasty parting kicks in the form of a hijacking and a plane crash. May you all recover from the hangover of it, and may our government functionaries get over their inherent inferiority complex. Best Wishes at the dawn of third Millennium.