When all rests on playing it safe

IT COULD be a study in how males and females react differently to pressure and reveal emotion. New Delhi's Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, has publicly admitted to '''flutters of nervousness'' about the city's preparedness for the Commonwealth Games in October.

A short distance away, on the ninth floor of the grey marble interior of the Games Secretariat, Dr Lalit Bhanot, the official spokesman for the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee, exudes confidence.

Somehow Bhanot still manages to swagger while seated. "The Melbourne Games were excellent but we are going to raise the bar even higher. We will surpass Melbourne. All the security arrangements are in place and we are fully ready," he tells The Age.

But not everyone is convinced. The clock outside the Secretariat building shows that only 268 days remain before the Games begin, but there has been widespread criticism of the fact that some of the venues are months behind schedule.

Now, following a British newspaper report that England was considering pulling out of the Games over concerns about India's ability to provide the necessary level of security, and suggestions from some Australian commentators that Australian athletes should be flown in for events and flown out again after their particular competition is over, the focus has shifted.

But Bhanot is confident the security arrangements for the Games - which will be attended by 7000 athletes, 30 heads of state and 100,000 visitors - will be effective.

He pointed out that Australian Commonwealth Games chief Perry Crosswhite, who had earlier been apprehensive about India's preparations, had visited New Delhi in December.

"As a member of the co-ordination commission overseeing Delhi's preparations, Mr Crosswhite questioned us all and went away confident about security.''

For the Delhi Games, security will be handled by the federal Home Ministry, the Delhi Government and the Delhi police force. R. K. Das, who has handled the Prime Minister's security and is a former head of the Central Industrial Security Force, which protects airports, military installations, atomic power plants, and ports, is advising the Game's organising committee.

Security procedures have been been given several dry runs, including for the meeting of the Commonwealth Games Federation General Assembly in Delhi last October. "The past three meetings we have had with federation officials and with the security advisers of the participating countries have been milestones in quashing any apprehensions about security and co-ordination," says Bhanot.

The bulk of the 77,000-strong Delhi police, bolstered by thousands of paramilitary, intelligence services personnel and reinforcements from outside Delhi, will protect the Games venues against a terrorist attack. From the moment they arrive in India, athletes and Games officials will be given armed escorts through the airport to the Games village and city hotels. Athletes will travel in dedicated lanes where their vehicles, accompanied by armed escorts, will be given right of way.

At the Games Village, on the banks of the Yamuna River in east Delhi, athletes and officials will be protected by three layers of security. The first, outside the venue, will comprise police and paramilitary. Then, people entering the village will be subjected to X-ray machines, scanners, metal detectors and vehicle checks. Anyone entering the village, including spectators, will have to use an electronic swipe card. Finally, anti-terrorist commandos will be stationed inside the village.

It is the fact that India has suffered more terrorist attacks in recent years than any other country that has aroused concerns about security in some participating nations. Most recently, more than 180 people died in the Mumbai terror attacks in 2008, an incident that exposed gaping holes in India's security procedures.

After the attack, hotels and shopping malls introduced new security checks for people and baggage. Guests at hotels have to provide proof of their identity before checking in.

Before 9/11, India routinely suffered terrorist attacks in the disputed region of Kashmir where Muslim separatists are waging a battle to take Kashmir, which has a Muslim majority, out of the Indian Union.

After 9/11, some young Muslims in the rest of country became radicalised, linking up with terror groups in Pakistan and elsewhere in South Asia. In August 2008 (the year 1113 people died in India as a result of terrorism), National Security Adviser M. K. Narayananacknowledged that 800 terrorist cells were active in India.

Major sports events are inevitable terrorist targets these days but the perceived risk of foreign sports stars being targeted in South Asia increased after gunmen attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team in the Pakistani city of Lahore last March. Six policemen and two civilians were killed and seven Sri Lankan squad members were wounded in the assault as the team travelled to a Test match.

Security experts agree that the New Delhi Games are an obvious terrorist target and that any incident will be deeply troubling for India.

"The Games are a source of pride for the host nation," says author and analyst Satish Jacob. "For the Indian middle class, which sees India as a growing power because of its economy, the Games are important for the country's reputation, particularly after China's success with the Olympics."

The looming threat of terror refuses to go away. Last month, a number of countries, including Australia, Britain and the US, issued warnings to their citizens that they could be targeted in terrorist attacks in India.

Two groups of terrorists will try to disrupt the Games - those operating in Kashmir and those with global links, who will want to target Western countries that have troops in Afghanistan.

Bhanot says India has no plans to make special arrangements for specific countries that could be at greater risk. "We are providing stringent security for everyone at the Games and so everyone will be protected. There is nothing to worry about. Some of them will be safer here than in their own countries.''

However, not everyone is confident that the Games will proceed without incident. Ajay Sahni, terrorism expert and executive director of the Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi, is an outspoken critic of the Indian Government's ability to fight terrorism.

The Government and police, he says, are badly equipped to fight the diffused threat of terrorism the country faces every day. "India is not good at the broad, diffuse terrorism it faces. What India is very effective at is dealing with a possible terrorist attack against a specified target for a specified period of time, like the Games,'' says Sahni.