Are we prepared to live in a police state?

Sukumar Ranganathan — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 10:16:00 GMT

Under News

In the wake of the blasts in Mumbai are all of us -- including those who have ways of making themselves heard in print, television, or blogs -- prepared to live in a post-9/11-US kind of environment?
The building where the Mint office is located started checking vehicles and IDs a month or so ago, and judging from the number of complaints I have heard about the process, I am not sure many of us are willing to move to an environment where IDs are checked and access is limited.
I for one wouldn't have any problems moving to such a system -- provided it is uniform.
India's biggest bane has been that it is a country where the government and even companies manage by exception than by rule (one reason why e-governance is the best way forward here) and it is quite likely that this will extend to such inspections as well.
The only time my car was waved in without the regular stop-open-the-boot routine at the Mint office building was when it ended up blocking the entry of one of HT Media's directors.
I narrated this incident to a friend who had an interesting and insightful explanation. "They know he won't bomb the building; they're not so sure about you."

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Are we prepared to live in a police state?