This is only the latest episode in India’s disgraceful vip security saga. Innocent citizens have been beaten up for straying near vip cavalcades, patients have died in ambulances forced to wait while chief ministers went by to cut some stupid ribbon somewhere, and now futures of our children have been jeopardised. I am sure Mr Advani is as ashamed of this as everyone else, but the harm is already done. The CBSE will hardly give grace marks to students who reach their halls late. In any case, how do you quantify the trauma that these children went through and which would surely have an effect on their performance in other papers too? The next day, the home ministry issued a circular saying that vip security should not disrupt citizens’ lives. This standard assembly-line response is a sick joke. Not a single person involved has even bothered to apologise to the affected children or their parents. This is outrageous and obscene.