ODISHA SECURITY WATCH: Internal security management: Challenges before th...

ODISHA SECURITY WATCH: Internal security management: Challenges before th...: http://indianewsdiary.com/?p=17860 My article published in India News Diary According to various news sources in air, the officials acros...

Internal Security management: challenges before NaMo

Published at: India News Diary

http://indianewsdiary.com/?p=17860

Padmalochan Dash[1]

According to various news sources in air, the officials across various central ministries are said to be extremely busy of preparing the road map as per the spirit and desire of the BJP manifesto. So far the issues of internal security management is concerned, Union Home Ministry officials are also preparing the roadmap picking up key points from the BJP manifesto to steer its officials in a direction.  The bureaucracy has very rightly understood the pulse of the new ruling party BJP, when it got a massive mandate on its promises where highest priority has been given to national security. The bureaucracy very clearly understands that unlike the congress-led UPA, the Modi-led NDA is hardly going to spare any bureaucrat for its tiny mistake if the government face slightly aberration in the media and in public. Keeping this in mind, the bureaucracy is perhaps very carefully preparing the agenda the new government is likely to pronounce after its official take over.

Among the promised areas of national security, the management of internal security finds a thoughtful reflection.  The most prospective agenda of the government is going to include the revival of the National Security Council (established by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led government in 1998), while the issue like abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, and POTA like strong anti-terrorism law, and the establishment of National Counter Terrorism Centre NCTC) are said to be kept in the pipeline and to gradually follow.  Similarly, having the sensitive issue of intrusion along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), cross border activities along Line of Control (LoC) and illegal migration along the unfenced borders in mind, the new government is to focus on the substantial infrastructure development along the LAC (in Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim), and to complete the fencing work along Bangladesh and Myanmar borders as soon as possible.  But, such initiatives cannot be translated into actions unless the government take seriousness towards restoring the policy paralysis and to instil the confidence in the executive who is essential for a speedy carry forward.

So far the management of internal security for the time being, the new governments needs to bring out NSC from its dysfunctionality as the first priority.  There are indications that the NSC is going to oversee the internal security affairs in focus.  While the internal security challenges at critical fronts like J&K, the red- corridor and the Northeast, while the priority of issues like militancy, insurgency, organised crime, terrorism and Left Wing Extremism will be high on its agenda.  However, for the successful management of these challenges, the new government need to seriously care for strengthening the institutional capacity of the intelligence, investigation and prosecute agencies, and to ensure their insulation from political interventions.

The need of the hour is to show proactiveness towards internal security so as to instil confidence in the public first. However, proactiveness need not be confused with short term measures and must not end with confrontational state of affairs.  Hence, the challenge before the new government is to devise strategies for the sustainable and long term solutions to all the existing internal security challenges, while keeping the security apparatus prepared for immediate threats at any given situation.

Behind the implementation of all agenda and programme, the highest objective of the new government is to bring efficiency and effectiveness in India’s internal security management system. In this regard, the prominence has to be implementing the overdue recommendations so that the belated reform at various fronts of internal security management gets accomplished first.  For instance, the long pending police reform suggested by the second administration reforms commission report as well as the reformation of the ‘intelligence apparatus’, ‘border management apparatus’ suggested by the Kargil Committee Report are the overdue cases to be implemented in their totality.

As the previous Vajpayee-led NDA regime has been time and again credited for its unprecedented attempt for initiating reforms in country’s security management system, it is obvious that the revived NDA and more potent BJP at the Centre now will undeniably pursue the policy of its own previous rule.  However, in doing so, it is to expect that the government has to have the temporal and spatial sensitivity and must not forget the truth that there was a government how much adverse it might had been, has ruled the country for ten years. And for a successive government, while the maintenance of status-quo is generally advantageous, altering the status-quo brings several challenges to handle.

Though, the UPA government was not practically and considerably serious towards national security issues, the personal efforts taken in the “post-26/11 Mumbai terrorist attacks phase” by one of its Minister of Home Affairs Mr. P. Chidambaram are noteworthy.  Though, he could not become successful in completing the implementation of his dream-reform plans, what he has started need not be distracted but rather to be strengthened.  So, strengthening the National Investigating Agency (NIA), expanding the National Security Guard (NSG) in terms of its capacity and presence, taking the initiative and leadership for opening of special anti-terrorism squads in all the States and Union Territories; strengthening the capability of Central Intelligence Agencies are some of the major task the new government need to seriously carry forward. Similarly, to balance the lack of Centre-State and State-State coordination, the important task before the new government is to make functional the proposed Inter-State Council and institutionalise the Chief Minister’s conference and make the states the part of internal security decisions also.

Behind the success of internal security management the role of the policy makers and the bureaucracy is prominent. Similarly, the role and involvement of political authority is also crucial. However, it is the political authority at the Centre which can make difference if it desires so. So far the changing trend in the management of internal security seems up to the moment, the revival of NDA policy is quite natural.  Secondly, the NSA for the time being is going to be “the executive head” of the internal security affairs and will directly report to the Prime Minister till a special Ministry of Internal Security is shaped.  While the NDA will certainly seek for speedy efforts and investments for strengthening the “out-dated and the colonially inherited internal security mechanism” in the country, it will certainly want that the bureaucratic swiftness also match to its aspiration. It is because, the new government has to reflect something in action on the line of its promises before it passes its hundred-days post.

However, it is a proven fact that the self-claimed sagacious bureaucracy will come on its way. And it will ever hunt for to side-track the efforts of the previous government so as to be wiser before the present government.  The government therefore, need to be utmost careful of implementing any hasty suggestion by the bureaucracy to alter the old government’s good efforts and therefore need to review any policy suggestion with caution.  Though it is essential that the UPA government’s inaction over various security matters and its intolerance to strong anti-terror law are apparent to be reviewed, I would suggest that the efforts taken by P. Chidambaram’s must also be carefully studied.   I understand that the bureaucracy is the master of designing the empty vessels of policies and programme so that it can sound much to the satisfaction of its political boss, but hardly to quench the thirst of none of the governed. Thus, it is the liability and responsibility of the more sagacious political authority at the helm to be cautious and extra-careful of bureaucratic intention of political unaccountability. Otherwise the bureaucracy will keep the new government fooled for the years till the election is again around.  At the end of drama the election promises will become the liability unless those are translated into practices and implementation on the ground.

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[1] Ph. D Research Scholar, working on “India’s internal security management reform” at the Centre for Security Studies, Central University of Gujrat, Gandhinagar, kalinga_leader@rediffmail.com, Mob: 08401629532