High Tea alert
The 67th Republic Day celebration in Uttarakhand passed off peacefully despite the terror threat hovering over it, save for a disquieting picture that the day threw up, reflecting police in a ludicrous light. True, the lower rung of the state cops splendidly rose to the challenge, leaving no stone unturned to make things glitch free. But...The state’s top cop sounded a high alert after a bunch of youths covering their faces in black ‘masks’ was found loafing about a security- sensitive place lateMonday night. But what happened later is intriguing. He chose to ‘drink’ the day to its last dregs, relishing steaming cups of tea, ensconced in Rajbhawan and later at chief minister’s residence. While police were sweating themselves out in the bone-chilling cold to stave off the ‘terror’ threat the cop who lords over the state’s ‘policedom’ looked the least bothered. It is another matter that the youths later proved to be innocent college-going lads who were forced to wrap up their faces on the chilled night. The question remains-why the top cop plunged himself into the scene with something of a quixotic zeal and then retreated into ‘high tea’IJ Was it to let the steam off or the whole thing was a quixotic misadventure or, more ominously, something, meant to hog limelight for himself and his police as the ‘saviour’ of DebobhoomiIJ
Unimpressive turnout
The high tea that Rajbhawan arranges thrice a year on Republic Day, Independence Day and State Foundation Day (November 9) seems to be fast losing its sheen every passing year. To arrest the trend, Rajbhawan took some good initiatives for the R-Day’s ceremonial high tea this year. They were meant to lure a good number of invitees to attend it and also to ensure fool-proof security in view of the looming terror threat. The number of invitees was considerably increased. Officers of additional secretary rank were added to the list while representatives of a number of media houses were invited, a figure much more than that of the previous years. This aside, they issued e-cards with bar coding to avoid any duplicity by way of security. Care was taken too to avoid any breach of norms involving the nation’s quintessential symbols. These are all good initiatives in perfect tune with the significance of the high tea at a deified place on a special day. Yet, despite all this, the number of guests who cared to turn up at the high tea was far from impressive. Now, the people are expecting that Rajbhawan will go for something new to the lure the invitees to the ceremonial high tea so that things reverse for the upcoming Independence Day.