Security in its entirety

WITH THE TASK forces expected to submit their reports by the weekend, the Group of Ministers (GoM) set up by the Centre will review national security in its entirety in the wake of the large scale intrusions by Pakistani troops and foreign mercenaries along the Line of Control in Kashmir. These four task forces were mandated to study the various recommendations of the Subrahmanyam Committee, which went into the causes of Kargil and identified some of the loopholes in security management. The task force on border management has already submitted its report and this may be a more clear-cut picture. While the international boundaries on the West are laid down to a point, the problems arise mainly on the Line of Control (LoC). In the north and the east, the Centre has decided to fence the borders with Bangladesh, where another kind of problem persists - refugees. Even if it could take another six to seven years, this is something that needs to be done with a bilateral commitment.

It is the reports of the other three task forces - internal security, management of defence and intelligence - which could identify many grey areas and weaknesses. Internal security becomes a huge canvas and will have to address highly sensitive issues including cross-border terrorism, infiltration of ISI agents, susceptibility of ex-servicemen to become conduits of information, left-wing extremism in some States and insurgency in the Northeast. Though each of them has to be dealt with separately, an overall strategy and coordination has to be evolved in consultation with the States. Defence management is something that is better left to the uniformed forces and the Ministry of Defence, but it is imperative for the Defence Minister to complete the restructuring of the Ministry that he promised to do last year. There has to be a qualitative improvement in the interaction and relationship between the armed forces and the bureaucrats running the Ministry.

Intelligence has emerged as the nucleus of any security management system, but appears to be the main chink in the armour today. The Subrahmanyam Committee has called for a greater appreciation of the role of intelligence by all agencies. It is imperative for various agencies such as the Intelligence Bureau (IB), the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and the Directorate- General of Military Intelligence to share the information they have with one another and piece together the whole picture. Inter-agency interaction and coordination have been sadly lacking and they have grown up more as rivals, competing with one another instead of complementing one another. In the words of the Defence Minister, Mr. George Fernandes, ``The present structure and processes in intelligence gathering and reporting lead to an overload of background and unconfirmed information and inadequately assessed intelligence. There is no institutionalised process for periodic interaction at levels below the JIC.''

When the reports of the task forces come in, the GoM has to sift through their recommendations and draw up a blueprint for security management in the country. Having set up a National Security Council and appointed a National Security Adviser, it is incumbent upon the Government to make the best use of them. More than the council and its advisory body, its Secretariat has to become fully functional, bringing together experts and officers from all the forces. Its first priority must be to collect all the reports and intelligence from various agencies, analyse and interpret them and pass them on to the relevant arm of the Government to act on. They must also be able to collect, assess and utilise the intelligence reports from the States, share information with them and frustrate the plans of conspirators and saboteurs. The GoM has its task cut out. Instead of presenting just another report to gather dust, it must address the shortcomings identified by the Subrahmanyam Committee.

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