E-Paper
Fortifying Lucknow Cantonment roads
When everything seems to be going well with the civil-army relations, the army establishment in Lucknow springs up untenable surprises causing uncalled for distancing between the two. The latest in the series is the oft-repeated fortification of the Cantonment roads from the civilians, forcing the latter to obtain ?permits? from military authorities to use these roads. Such embargos have been enforced on a number of occasions earlier too, only to be withdrawn simply because they were meaningless in the context of the homogeneity that Lucknow Cantonment enjoys with the ever-growing Lucknow city.
When everything seems to be going well with the civil-army relations, the army establishment in Lucknow springs up untenable surprises causing uncalled for distancing between the two. The latest in the series is the oft-repeated fortification of the Cantonment roads from the civilians, forcing the latter to obtain ‘permits’ from military authorities to use these roads. Such embargos have been enforced on a number of occasions earlier too, only to be withdrawn simply because they were meaningless in the context of the homogeneity that Lucknow Cantonment enjoys with the ever-growing Lucknow city.
Whatever be the compulsions of the army establishment, restricting movement of general public has become a major irritant for the civilians. In fact such “unmindful security drive tends to create an unnecessary wedge between civil military relations, which have traditionally remained clouded in mutual suspicion,” feel some residents of the ‘creamy layered’ Dilkusha Colony. Says Sharat Pradhan a senior journalist, “It is not only disgusting but utterly humiliating to be stopped every now and then by the ever suspecting army sentry, whether it is the Somnath Dwar or one such barricade set up on the Varanasi national highway-Thimaiyya Road intersection. I never encountered such paranoid display of security even along highways in Moscow during the Communist heydays!” His annoyance is understandable as it certainly is very demeaning to be made to feel a fugitive in one’s own land! Apparently there seems to be no worthwhile explanation with the army other than of course, the largely untenable excuse of ‘security’ for barricading the three main entry points from the city to the Cantonment, which today stand sandwiched between civilian areas..
What irks the civilians is the ‘whimsical attitude’, being displayed by the local army authorities in this regard. Says a bureaucrat (who has also been stopped once while driving his private vehicle), “It is understandable that occasional security checks are carried out at night (incidentally there are no sentries at night), but stopping vehicles, cyclists, rickshaws and school children as a matter of routine during day time not only appears over stretched, but defeats the very purpose of security, which the army should know better”. Moreover he adds, “it is not understood why the army should block the main roads here when DTC busses keep plying all over Delhi cantonment or for that matter right in front of the Army House, the official residence of the Chief of Army Staff. Not to forget the regular flow of traffic on the high security Raisina Hill”.
Tight-lipped that they usually are, there is virtually nothing that seems forthcoming from the local army establishment to justify the need for such ‘obtrusive cordoning’. When queried by a journalist the Sub Area Commander (responsible for implementing all such administrative instructions within the station), feigned ignorance. A similar order had been implemented in 2001 and when confronted the then Administrative Commandant instead of owning responsibility deflected the matter in the court of the Cantt Board, suggesting that “the Cantonment Board may be in a better position to give a suitable answer”. However when reminded that it was beyond the brief of the Cantonment Board to position military police (MP) or the regimental police (RP) alongside such ‘road blocks’, he hastily retracted passing the buck to Headquarters Central Command.
Interestingly this business of superfluous security has a long history. The matter first surfaced during Mulayam Singh Yadav’s tenure as the Defence Minister and was resolved through his intervention. However sometime during 1999, the barricades reappeared forcing some civilians to raise the issue with the Atal Behari Vajpayee, the then Prime Minister (Lucknow being his constituency) . In reply however, the then Administrative Commandant, on behalf of the Lucknow Station Commander sent a denial against alleged enforcement of any such ban on movement of general public on cantonment roads , though he did not rule out occasional security checks conducted by the army in view of the “prevalent situation arising out of reported ISI activities”. (Mother of all ills, ISI it had to be)!
The civilians, those who have to traverse the cantonment roads out of sheer necessity than pleasure are of the opinion that the army indulges in doublespeak, when it comes to settlement of this issue. The barricades and the associated harassment are very much there for anyone to see. The army therefore needs to think of a better alibi than Hamid Gul’s recipe for all seasons, the threat from the infamous Inter Services’ Intelligence!
