24th November, India International trade fare:
As i was waiting in the huge lines outside the Pragati Maidan for the trade fare, i could not help but remember the news headlines about bomb blast threats in Delhi.
The whole situation seemed moronic when i saw many people jumping the fence around the Pragati Maidan to enter without ticket or to simply avoid the long lines.
This is quite normal, nothing out of the ordinary, however when i saw the elaborate security
arrangements at the main entrance (including frisking and a metal detector check along with a metal detector wand search of bags) i could not help laughing my ass off, these Delhi police guys can not do anything right, even here many people walked off without bothering to get the bags checked.
Well about the jumping the fence thing, after i went inside the Pragati maidan, i took the pain of going to the place where the people were able to jump inside.
From that place i walked all the way to the entrance of the international participation hall for the SAARC nations, and there were no overlapping security zones, people who had purchased stuff made of metal (artwork, utensils etc.) were able to get inside the so called metal detectors.
That is 60-70 people right there at the metal detector gate, any idiot can blow himself up or place a medium intensity explosive device to do deadly damage, and the police is trying to play some sort of political- image buildup- publicity game with no thought to the security aspect of the exercise.
If we look at it in a realistic/ practical way, then any possible threat can start at the huge lines that go on forever and are densely packed, where no security arrangement can be made.
So from a defensive point of view, the police can not protect the people from a bomb blast or terrorist event at this level, the only level that it can happen is at the intelligence level, catching them before they decide to do something, otherwise there is no hope in similar situations, there is no way.
As for a much longer hostage situation some people jumping in had bags with them, anything could have been inside, and many halls except the defense ones were not protected, it was very much possible, infact too easy for anyone to create a hostage situation.
This is all well known to anyone who lives in India, anything like this can happen anywhere, the irony of the situation are the huge metal detectors that do not seem to serve any real purpose.
Perhaps we need to ask ourselves, do we really care about the metal detectors, are they feeling lonely, do they need physiological counseling, :-) rolling on the floor laughing my ass off.
I hope that the intelligence gathering ability is good, atleast better than what is required to accomplish the task of knowing that if three mujahid looking guys are approaching the parliament with bullet proof jackets, Kalashnikovs and grenades, they are not going to sit in the visitors section.
All of this aside the trade fare was really very nice, had food, went around saw a lot of halls, all the people at the stalls were nice(i think they are paid to be so).
The best amongst the halls i could visit was the one with all the technological gizmos, for the simple fact that there was a lot of trade going on there, as for the states, well all tried to show the trade side, and mostly had whatever was available on display, i guess the real trade had already happened during the business visitor days.
The Uttaranchal (uttara khand now) stall was nice however lacked any volume as there is not much trade going on back home i guess.
All in all this trade fare is turning to be a regular affair, with no real additions.
The programs from different parts of India, inluding Music, dance etc. etc. are always nice.
A interesting entity was the Defense exhibition, i thought they had a separate exhibition, i think they never get crowds this big so they cashed in too, judging by the lines outside the hall, i think they should consider making the specific defense exhibition more people centric, they had the regular OFB, DRDO, Naval Docks, there was a HAL tejas SIM, a INSAS section trying to tell people that DRDO has actually done something with our money. They even had a Igla heat seaking missile that is man portable, and a live conversation with some poor officer in Leh, showing that there is something that is to be defended.
I seriously think that this should be a part of the defense expo and not the IITF, if they can not get the crowds well hire more competent advertising firms and suck it up.
As always the food was good, however more international participation should be there, i mean a huge food court with everything from japan to Mexico and everything in between will boost the show even more.(and make it more of a nightmare for the ever ready police).
Thumbs up, although for the last time, if the same concepts are around next time, it will just become another big publicity event when it should be a festival.
