Post retirement, NSG's crack commandos find no takers for their battle skills in a lawless civilian life. They pine for a steady job, guarding the rich.
Forty-three-year-old Prem Singh Lakra's life has changed since he became a bodyguard to the managing director of a prominent Delhi hotel chain. Not so long ago, he was a Black Cat, belonging to the National Security Guards (NSG), the crack 16-year-old force of some of India's best soldiers entrusted with guarding the lives of the country's VVIPs. Today, Lakra has to smile more often and dress sharper for the comfortable salary he is being paid to guard—and if need be take the bullet for—his employer. Agreed there's no sense of pride here of being directly responsible for national security, but it's a job nonetheless. And it's a job that, luckily for Lakra, is also fairly paying: Rs 8,000 a month. "The jawans at the border get killed for much less," says he. His experience has taught him that assassins first train their guns on the bodyguard or the driver and then the intended victim to avoid being obstructed by the two. Lakra's past duties have included being part of the team that swooped down on Sivarasan, prime suspect in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, and a rescue operation involving a Somalian ambassador.
Vishnu Singh, 41, another ex-Black Cat, is also a reluctant freelancer. Armed with an ordnance factory .32 pistol and a cellphone, Singh is looking for a sthai naukari (permanent job) like the one he left behind when he took voluntary retirement from the Indian army's 9 Para Commando in 2000. His present employment as the personal security guard (PSO) of a Supreme Court lawyer isn't his idea of a good job. He'd rather sit outside a bank on a permanent basis rather than bask in the glamour of shadowing an important person.