India’s National Security Advisor M. K. Narayanan was in for a rude shock yesterday.
He was chauffeur driven from his hotel, the Taj Samudra, at Galle Face, to the BMICH for the opening sessions of the SAARC summit. There were security escorts to accompany the senior official, who is widely regarded, by virtue of his official position, as a high-profile target. He arrived at the main entrance to the conference hall, and was received and ushered to his seat.
When the sessions were over, and after the South Asian leaders had already left for their hotels, Mr. Narayanan was still standing at the entrance of the BMICH, waiting for his car and the security escort vehicles to arrive. But no car or vehicles turned up. He then approached a taxi with the Taj Samudra name and logo on it which had transported someone else to the conference venue, and persuaded the driver to take him back to the hotel.
Although the roads were closed for other traffic, the vehicle, with the Taj Samudra logo on its doors, managed to make it back to the hotel. However, India’s National Security Adviser was forced to travel without any security. Needless to say, the serious lapse has displeased both the Indian officials and those in the Indian High Commission in Colombo.
Security at the BMICH, the conference venue, and all motorcades travelling to and from the BMICH, come under the scrutiny of the Presidential Security Division (PSD). Many weeks ahead of the conference, the PSD were tasked with planning and co-ordinating the duties assigned to them. “Evidently someone did not do his job properly,” an exasperated Foreign Ministry official who learnt of the incident told The Sunday Times.
Deputy Inspector General S. M. Wickremasinghe who is in charge of the PSD, met Mr. Narayanan later yesterday to extend an apology on behalf of his organisation.
A similar lapse occurred when Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived at the Presidential Secretariat for talks with President Mahinda Rajapaksa. When the talks ended, and the Indian Premier was about to board
his official limousine to return to his hotel, the Personal Security Officer assigned to him was missing. Noticing this, a member of the Indian premier’s Special Protection Group (SPG), hurriedly jumped into the front seat.
It was later discovered that the PSO, a Senior Superintendent of Police attached to the Special Task Force (STF), had arrived at the spot only after Dr. Singh’s car had left. Although he had escorted the Indian Premier from his hotel, the Sri Lankan PSO had reportedly been missing. President Rajapaksa yesterday ordered a full inquiry into the incident.
Yet another summit gaffe was reported.
The wife of Speaker W. J. M. Loku Bandara had to give up her seat in the first row at yesterday’s inaugural of the summit. This was to make way for Opposition UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe. He had earlier been assigned a seat in row five. Seated next to him was a Moulavi or Muslim cleric.
This was whilst former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, who has the record for the longest-serving SAARC chairperson, was given a seat in row three. Political sources pointed out that, according to the Precedence Table, a former President comes next to the serving President, and even before the Prime Minister. After some discussion, the former President was given a seat in the front row, but that was the last seat in the left extreme of the row.
A board with the words HON. CABINET MINISTERS was hung on the front-row chairs, but with so many Cabinet Ministers present, they were seen sitting all over the place. The seating arrangements were handled by the Foreign Ministry.
| 
E-mail