Give us guns, India Inc demands from govt

Bangalore: The war on Mumbai has left the India Inc angry and vulnerable sectors want much more than a constable with a lathi.

A meeting convened by the Karnataka government with industry heads led to strong suggestions from an industry that's scared.

“We're losing faith in the political leadership of this country. There's no doubt about that,” T V Mohandas Pai, director (HR), Infosys, adding, “To take care of the political class, they have Z-plus security. They have arms. What about us? Isn't our life important? We're citizens. The government is unable to protect us, then amend the law. Let us bear arms, we'll protect ourselves to whatever extent we can”.

A worried Bangalore Inc said they'd rather have machine guns than be sitting ducks to a torrent of bullets.

While government installations have forces who can combat an emergency, the private sector has to make do with metal detectors, frisking and CCTV security.

The latest addition are sniffer dogs, which some organizations have opted for, but nothing that can combat an AK-47.

“We'll not be in a position to answer these kinds of AK-47s and grenades. We need much stronger help from the government. And we'll need military intervention. May be we could start some military patrolling at least, then there can be confidence that help can come at short notice,” chairman and MD, Biocon, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw.

But it's a debate the government refused to be drawn into.

“They're talking about equipping private guards with automatic weapons, that's a central subject and has to go to the Centre,” said DG and IGP, R Srikumar.

We've seen bomb blasts before but the audacity of the terror attack on Mumbai has got the industry in Bangalore sitting up.

Most companies have decided that they will do whatever it takes to review and reboot their security internally, over the next week. But whether the law helps them or not is another question.

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