If something is worth smuggling, you can be pretty sure that the officialdom at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) is game for it.
The end of that sentence should read ‘gold’but for our airport officials (security personnel, bureaucrats, customs folks, airline officials – the lot of them) you could also add foreign currency, gems, artefacts and even human beings. If something is worth smuggling, you can be pretty sure that the officialdom at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) is game for it. You may have to fork out a lot of money for the shipping and handling charges but apparently, there is nothing that cannot be sent from or brought into Nepal without a little facilitation from our airport friends. Even the recent haul of gold, technically speaking, had already been smuggled in through whatever passes for airport security at TIA. As CPN-UML lawmaker Prakash Jwala rather beautifully summed up in the house the other day – you could smuggle an elephant into Kathmandu through TIA. 

While Jwala’s quips about golden elephants had an element of comedy about it, there is nothing comical about the seemingly laissez faire attitude to proceedings at the airport. These ‘lapses’ often come to light rather sensationally in the papers and reading it one would be tempted to think that there was no security or procedure at the airport. Yes, they may be inconsistently applied but there are procedures to follow – comparatively more than at other airports given the lack of technology in use. In fact, if you happen to find yourself on the wrong end of a properly applied one, you’ll find the insistence on procedure not only very pedantic but actually bordering on harassment. 

So then, what really is the problem for these repeated fiascos at our ‘international’ airport? All these apparent ‘loopholes’ in our system are really the result of the officials needing to make hay while the sun shines. Anyone familiar with bureaucratic and (police) postings will know that there are ‘barren’ postings, fairly ‘rewarding’ ones, lucrative postings and then the ‘jackpot’ ones. Our bureaucrats tend to spend a lot of their time running from pillar to post not only coveting these profitable appointments but also shelling out pretty decent money to secure them.

The TIA is one of the latter placements and, with frequent government changes rendering official appointments about as permanent as the weather, the need to capitalize on a posting and obtain returns on one’s ‘investment’ has become more urgent. A stint at TIA is supposedly enough to ensure that our personal life takes off – not unlike the planes that regularly leave the airport. 

Presumably, the whole system there works like a syndicate to promote its own interests. If my memory serves me correctly, it was only a couple of years ago that we had an overhaul of the personnel stationed there. Our focus, therefore, really should be on prevention and not knee jerk reactions like changing the personnel every single time something like this occurs because, for reasons like the one alluded to above, this cycle will keep repeating itself. It would be worth paying attention to – and perhaps emulating – the massive ‘prevention’ exercise currently underway at NEA seeking first to address systemic problems (in the case of NEA things like meter tampering and electricity theft) before looking for a cure. 

It’s not simply the dereliction of duty that is a problem because we have come to expect that from our bureaucrats. But while officials looking the other way is bad in itself – in an airport even criminally negligent – it’s the active exploitation and abuse of one’s authority that is scary from a security perspective. Yesterday it was harassment of our foreign bound (and homecoming) workers, today it is gold smuggling, letting someone through without stamps or security checks, and tomorrow it could be anything. It’s not like the state of the infrastructure is any less embarrassing to us common folks without our officials adding insult to injury with their greed and procedural apathy. 

During my arrivals at night, in many instances, I haven’t filled up those annoying arrival forms or have even submitted half filled up ones without anyone batting an eye. When I haven’t filled it in, I’ve been told not to bother with it. If MRPs have apparently rendered them meaningless, why have them at all? The checking when we arrive is perfunctory unless you happen to be carrying electronics or televisions which returning workers tend to do. I wonder this lackadaisical attitude is because we’ve had our fair share of scans and checks done at departing foreign airports? Presumably there is no need to check people arriving here when someone has already done it before. 

The sensitivity of their tasks at the airport is lost on most of the officials there. It says a lot about our security that we can’t even manage to keep stray dogs out of our airport and have to resort to shooting them once they get in. The whole place is one mismanaged bureaucratic tangle. Is it any wonder that India cites security concerns for requesting shelter for air marshals to ensure the safety and security of their planes? There are many lawmakers up in arms over India’s request but if you ask any of them to vouch for the security and procedural integrity of our airport you won’t find many willing to stick their necks out. And who can blame them. 

The writer loves traveling, writing, and good food when he is afforded an escape from the rat race. He can be contacted at gunjan.u@gmail.com
 

 
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