Delhi police have their jobs cut out this election season. They are undergoing special training to prevent shoe missiles and substances such as ink from being flung at politicians and VIPs —as it happened yesterday with Aam Aadmi Party leader Yogendra Yadav where a man wearing an AAP cap smeared his face with ink at Women’s Day celebrations at Jantar Mantar, and recently with Sahara boss Subrato Roy.
Since former US President George W Bush became the first shoe missile victim at Baghdad in December 2008, copycats have multiplied in India as well. In these days when politicians will be out in full force campaigning for their respective parties, cops fear many shoe-slingers would be waiting in the wings. Ironically, in spite of terrorist threats, it’s one of the most sensitive and critical of security jobs in the country now. Delhi police will train 6,000 personal security officers to shield VIPs from possible attacks.
“We have started the training programme. Personal security officers are being trained how to shield politicians when they are attending some public function or rally,” said Deputy Commissioner of Delhi Police SBS Tyagi.
Already around 6,000 personal security officers are deployed exclusively for VIPs and politicians in the city. Four to five PSOs are provided to Central ministers as well as other VIPs and politicians under the ‘X’ and ‘Y’ categories. “Each of them will have to undergo training for at least two days and will be taught how to keep a close eye on any suspicious seeming people at a public function and intercept them if they try to get too close to a VIP,’’ said the officer.
The training programme will focus on improving the reaction and response time of the security officers.
“It is not possible to put up plastic nets in front of politicians and VIPs addressing public rallies or a press conference to shield them from such missiles,” another IPS official said.