11-26-2008, 02:11 AM
Not my title.
From Pioneer, 25 Nov 2008
PM dials 100 for India
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->PM dials 100 to save India
Ashok K Mehta
It is difficult to keep count of the number of times Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has termed Maoism as the most serious internal threat to the country but been able to do so little to counter it. Last Sunday he was reminding Indiaâs top policemen of this, many of whom have painted a red corridor from Pashupati in Nepal to Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh. At the recent SAARC summit in Colombo, he called terrorism the single biggest threat to the stability of South Asia. After every terrorist strike in the country he promises to deal with the perpetrators of the dastardly crimes but is perpetually in denial (âwe are not soft on terrorâ).
While exhibiting rare political will in snatching the path-breaking 123 India-US civil nuclear deal from the jaws of defeat, heâs been unable to show any result in meeting threats to internal security. After the September attacks in Delhi, Parliament sanctioned mundane additions like more police stations and CCTVs.
<b>In a miraculous turn of events, last Sunday he actually ordered the establishment of a high-powered task force under the National Security Adviser to evolve a plan in 100 days to address the emerging challenges to internal security.</b> The decision is politically well timed and long overdue in a country which is the oldest victim of terrorism and where more lives have been lost tolerating the scourge than in fighting five wars on our borders. <b>Indiaâs main challenge is from within and not from across the LoC or LAC.</b>
After Operation Blue Star, in 1985 Babbar Khalsa triggered 110 transistor bombs killing 85 people around Delhi, using the same explosive mixture as employed today; many of the terrorists are still on trial. This tells you something about the lackadaisical policing and prosecuting procedures. Two-and-a-half decades after the terrorist bombings, a plan is to be initiated which, even if it is prepared, may never get implemented.
<b>Still, it is heartening to learn that National Security Adviser MK Narayanan has met officials from the US Homeland Security Department to explore ideas relevant to our ground reality.</b> The relevant of these is that the US was attacked just once on 9/11 seven years ago and never again due to comprehensively devised fail-safe preventive measures at home and pre-emptive actions abroad.
Three months ago, I wrote in these columns that one hoped the NSA, whose forte is internal security, would âkick-start a counter-terrorism mechanism culminating in a national internal security agency to stop the quarterly terrorist strikes in the heart of India emulating the Homeland Security conceptâ.
<b>Ever since the terrorist attack on Parliament House in 2001, the police, the intelligence agencies and the military have presented a number of plans to contain and defeat the indirect wars being waged by our enemies. But never was a blueprint sought by any political authority to wage a holistic campaign against the multifaceted threats to internal security. In the past, these have been addressed piecemeal without integrating hard and soft power to fight the threats.</b>
Every new challenge is met with a knee-jerk reaction. When the LTTE âair forceâ first struck Colombo in March 2007, our Navy and Air Force shrugged off the aerial threats to national assets like nuclear plants, oil refineries and shipping in the south by the Tigers. Later individually both took precautionary measures.
The Committee of Secretaries has met to review preparedness against anticipated threats from sea and air to vital installations. Earlier this year, the Cabinet Secretary ordered a review for securing strategic targets in the National Capital Region from the air. Air defence guns are to be deployed for the security of these targets. Threat recognition and response must be assigned to an independent nodal agency having authority and accountability.
Effort to institutionalise the demands of internal security was made in the late-1980s when an Internal Security Ministry was formed. In 2001, the Kargil Review Committee recommended the formation of a nodal agency for dealing with threats to internal security under a unified command. <b>In 2005, IIT Kanpur suggested establishing a National Internal Security Centre but the file got lost in North Block</b>. So, it is not for want of trying but for lack of political will that internal security is in such a big mess. <b>One can discern differences between the Prime Minister and his Home Minister over quantification of the Maoist threat.</b>
<b>Article 355 of the Constitution says that it is the duty of the Government to protect every citizen of the country.</b> Foreigners living in this internally insecure country are amazed when law and order, being a state subject, is the reason attributed to the Union Governmentâs failure to tackle terrorism which they say is war.
<b>The Supreme Court has decreed that terrorism goes beyond the pale of law and order. It has even asked the Government to establish a Central intelligence agency to probe anti-national activity that impinges on national security. In response, the Law and Home Ministries have given conflicting reasons as to why this cannot be done.</b> It is high time legal obstacles are removed and terrorism is deemed as a danger to national security. Further, law and order must become a concurrent subject.
We are woefully ill prepared to meet the current threats and future challenges to internal security in every aspect of defence and deterrence: Intelligence, investigation, policing, prosecution and punishment. <b>What is worse, politics, not national interest, determines policy and procedure.</b> With the fourth largest military, a growing economy and robust democracy, Indiaâs image as a rising power is undermined by frequent travel advisories that go to the heart of internal stability and credibility.
<b>New and bigger challenges are in the offing, centred in Afghanistan-Pakistan, the established epicentre of global terrorism. The focus of war in Iraq has shifted decisively to Afghanistan/Pakistan. Violence in this region has quadrupled over the last two years. Renewed US and Nato pressure astride the Durand Line against Al Qaeda and the Taliban, which have merged, is likely to force jihadi human bombers towards the Kashmir theatre of operations and deeper into India.</b>
The only suicide bomber to explode on Indian soil was the Sri Lankan Tamil Tigress Dhanu who took out a Prime Minister. The Al Qaeda variety is less discriminating in the choice of targets and creating mayhem. The 100-day âSave Indiaâ wonder â if it takes off â will make India safer and enhance the Governmentâs credibility.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
From Pioneer, 25 Nov 2008
PM dials 100 for India
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->PM dials 100 to save India
Ashok K Mehta
It is difficult to keep count of the number of times Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has termed Maoism as the most serious internal threat to the country but been able to do so little to counter it. Last Sunday he was reminding Indiaâs top policemen of this, many of whom have painted a red corridor from Pashupati in Nepal to Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh. At the recent SAARC summit in Colombo, he called terrorism the single biggest threat to the stability of South Asia. After every terrorist strike in the country he promises to deal with the perpetrators of the dastardly crimes but is perpetually in denial (âwe are not soft on terrorâ).
While exhibiting rare political will in snatching the path-breaking 123 India-US civil nuclear deal from the jaws of defeat, heâs been unable to show any result in meeting threats to internal security. After the September attacks in Delhi, Parliament sanctioned mundane additions like more police stations and CCTVs.
<b>In a miraculous turn of events, last Sunday he actually ordered the establishment of a high-powered task force under the National Security Adviser to evolve a plan in 100 days to address the emerging challenges to internal security.</b> The decision is politically well timed and long overdue in a country which is the oldest victim of terrorism and where more lives have been lost tolerating the scourge than in fighting five wars on our borders. <b>Indiaâs main challenge is from within and not from across the LoC or LAC.</b>
After Operation Blue Star, in 1985 Babbar Khalsa triggered 110 transistor bombs killing 85 people around Delhi, using the same explosive mixture as employed today; many of the terrorists are still on trial. This tells you something about the lackadaisical policing and prosecuting procedures. Two-and-a-half decades after the terrorist bombings, a plan is to be initiated which, even if it is prepared, may never get implemented.
<b>Still, it is heartening to learn that National Security Adviser MK Narayanan has met officials from the US Homeland Security Department to explore ideas relevant to our ground reality.</b> The relevant of these is that the US was attacked just once on 9/11 seven years ago and never again due to comprehensively devised fail-safe preventive measures at home and pre-emptive actions abroad.
Three months ago, I wrote in these columns that one hoped the NSA, whose forte is internal security, would âkick-start a counter-terrorism mechanism culminating in a national internal security agency to stop the quarterly terrorist strikes in the heart of India emulating the Homeland Security conceptâ.
<b>Ever since the terrorist attack on Parliament House in 2001, the police, the intelligence agencies and the military have presented a number of plans to contain and defeat the indirect wars being waged by our enemies. But never was a blueprint sought by any political authority to wage a holistic campaign against the multifaceted threats to internal security. In the past, these have been addressed piecemeal without integrating hard and soft power to fight the threats.</b>
Every new challenge is met with a knee-jerk reaction. When the LTTE âair forceâ first struck Colombo in March 2007, our Navy and Air Force shrugged off the aerial threats to national assets like nuclear plants, oil refineries and shipping in the south by the Tigers. Later individually both took precautionary measures.
The Committee of Secretaries has met to review preparedness against anticipated threats from sea and air to vital installations. Earlier this year, the Cabinet Secretary ordered a review for securing strategic targets in the National Capital Region from the air. Air defence guns are to be deployed for the security of these targets. Threat recognition and response must be assigned to an independent nodal agency having authority and accountability.
Effort to institutionalise the demands of internal security was made in the late-1980s when an Internal Security Ministry was formed. In 2001, the Kargil Review Committee recommended the formation of a nodal agency for dealing with threats to internal security under a unified command. <b>In 2005, IIT Kanpur suggested establishing a National Internal Security Centre but the file got lost in North Block</b>. So, it is not for want of trying but for lack of political will that internal security is in such a big mess. <b>One can discern differences between the Prime Minister and his Home Minister over quantification of the Maoist threat.</b>
<b>Article 355 of the Constitution says that it is the duty of the Government to protect every citizen of the country.</b> Foreigners living in this internally insecure country are amazed when law and order, being a state subject, is the reason attributed to the Union Governmentâs failure to tackle terrorism which they say is war.
<b>The Supreme Court has decreed that terrorism goes beyond the pale of law and order. It has even asked the Government to establish a Central intelligence agency to probe anti-national activity that impinges on national security. In response, the Law and Home Ministries have given conflicting reasons as to why this cannot be done.</b> It is high time legal obstacles are removed and terrorism is deemed as a danger to national security. Further, law and order must become a concurrent subject.
We are woefully ill prepared to meet the current threats and future challenges to internal security in every aspect of defence and deterrence: Intelligence, investigation, policing, prosecution and punishment. <b>What is worse, politics, not national interest, determines policy and procedure.</b> With the fourth largest military, a growing economy and robust democracy, Indiaâs image as a rising power is undermined by frequent travel advisories that go to the heart of internal stability and credibility.
<b>New and bigger challenges are in the offing, centred in Afghanistan-Pakistan, the established epicentre of global terrorism. The focus of war in Iraq has shifted decisively to Afghanistan/Pakistan. Violence in this region has quadrupled over the last two years. Renewed US and Nato pressure astride the Durand Line against Al Qaeda and the Taliban, which have merged, is likely to force jihadi human bombers towards the Kashmir theatre of operations and deeper into India.</b>
The only suicide bomber to explode on Indian soil was the Sri Lankan Tamil Tigress Dhanu who took out a Prime Minister. The Al Qaeda variety is less discriminating in the choice of targets and creating mayhem. The 100-day âSave Indiaâ wonder â if it takes off â will make India safer and enhance the Governmentâs credibility.
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