Can foreigners hold airline security posts?

Mumbai: It is a policy decision of sorts that the country will be taking: Can foreigners be appointed to top security posts in India's airlines?
Jet Airways recently appointed Steve Ramiah, a Singapore national as its vice-president (security), and now it appears that the airline may be compelled to replace him with an Indian.
In a high-level security meet called by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) last week- attended by representatives from the IB, RAW, home ministry, civil aviation ministry and airlines- it was unanimously decided that foreigners should not be allowed to hold top security posts in airlines. "It was a unanimous 'No' from all who attended the meeting, except of course, the Jet Airways representative. But the final government order to the effect is not known yet and will be issued in a day or two,'' said a source.
"The common consensus in last week's meeting was that the top security official of an airline like the vice-president (security) for instance should be an Indian as he/she would be privy to a lot of classified information ,'' the source said. "A vice president (security) would be the airline concerned's representative in all meetings called by the home ministry , BCAS etc. So the person would be privy to information related to say, terrorism, security issues between India and other countries, intelligence tip-offs etc,'' he said. "Jet Airways may appoint Ramiah as a consultant on security matters. No one had objections to that as a consultant has limited powers,'' he said.
Though foreign nationals hold a number of top posts in airlines in India, it is the first time that a foreigner was chosen to head security.
16/09/08 Manju V/Times of India

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Sep 2008, Jet Airways Sep 2008, Safety Sep 2008