‘Today’s intruders were Indians… Members overpowered them… In 2001, there was panic’: MPs present both times recall

Mahtab said what happened in 2001 was a terror attack. “Heavily armed Pakistani terrorists barged inside the gates of the Parliament complex and started firing. Security personnel and Watch and Ward staff were martyred securing the building and managed to neutralise them before they could enter and cause bloodshed inside… We heard the sound of gunshots inside the House,” recalled Mahtab.

“Today, the breach was of a different nature,” he said. “Both these intruders are Indians. Today, it was the Members who overpowered the intruder and handed him over to the staff. In 2001, there was panic in the House. All of us were escorted to the Central Hall and the hall was first secured. Then the security began to search each floor of Parliament to ensure there was no terrorist. This took about five hours. It was only about 5 pm that the first batch of MPs was escorted out,” Mahtab added.

However, the BJD MP said, even if Wednesday’s incident turned out to be harmless, there should be a thorough investigation into the breach “as the two men seemed trained”. “They jumped from the visitors’ gallery easily. While the height of the gallery in this House is lower than that in the previous House, someone who is just an activist or protester cannot jump and land so smoothly. The way the intruder was jumping over the benches also showed he was well trained. That yellow fume from the cracker hidden in the shoe also showed planning. What if it had been some poisonous gas or acid? This was a planned breach by trained men and they succeeded in breaching the security checks.”

Rajiv Pratap Rudy, the BJP MP from Bihar’s Saran, was also present in Parliament on December 13, 2001, like he was on Wednesday. “That day, I was in (L K) Advaniji’s room in Parliament, where a meeting was on. Advaniji was the Union home minister at the time. It is there that we heard some sounds and could see on the TV inside the room that an attack had happened. Cameramen who had fled had left their cameras on, and these cameras captured the visuals, which we saw in the room. We stayed there itself,” Rudy recalled.

On Wednesday’s breach, he said, “That was a full-fledged terror attack by armed terrorists, who were killed by the security forces and not allowed to enter either of the two Houses… This seems like a protest breach.”

Bhavana Gawali, the Yavatmal-Washim MP in the CM Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena faction who was also a Lok Sabha member in 2001, called both incidents unfortunate and suggested facilities like visitors’ gallery should be either closed off or have a protective layer like a glass wall. Gawali had already left Parliament when the terrorists attacked in December 2001.

“Anyone can be involved in minor lapses. Security personnel did their work. MPs too tried to nab them. When a threat comes against the nation, everyone works,” Gawali said.

She also claimed that when security personnel nabbed the two intruders Wednesday, she advised them to go to villages and help the poor, instead of indulging in such acts. “I said, ‘You both have done wrong. Go to villages, help the poor, do something good because your acts will not bring change in the situation’,” she said.

While the public should be encouraged to visit the Parliament, Gawali added, an incident like this can escalate and threaten lives.

On reports that BJP MP Pratap Simha, from Mysuru in Karnataka, had approved the entry passes to both intruders, Gawali said, “It is not written on someone’s forehead that he will do something like a terrorist or any other wrong act.”

On vetting people who approach MPs for visitor passes, she said, “We receive lots of applications. How can we check? People ask for help. If we do not help, they will say the MP is not helping.”