National
`Areas bordering Pak. insecure'
By Our Special Correspondent
CHENNAI, JAN. 28. While calling for a broader understanding of security concerns that goes beyond the State-centric militaristic concept, a former professor of International Studies in the Jawaharlal University, S.D. Muni, today cautioned against clubbing all developmental and political issues under the `security' label.
Speaking at a seminar on `Comprehensive Security in India: Issues and Concerns', Prof. Muni suggested that only those political and social problems that grew to threaten the State and society should be identified as security concerns. Arguing that traditional security concerns would continue to dominate, he wanted India to develop interests in other countries which could act as a cushion against war. Referring to troops' deployment along the border with Pakistan, he said the Indian Government, in its attempt to make insecure Indians within secure borders more secure, had actually made the borders more insecure.
Noting that the State was being seen as incompetent in handling security, he said it was also perceived as a threat to the people.
After the end of the Cold War, the security concerns had gone beyond concerns of territorial integrity, he added. Internal conflicts, he said, had international links with insurgent groups drawing funding, political and military support from other parts of the world.
The former Director-General of Military Operations, V.R. Raghavan, of the Delhi Policy Group, said though South Asia itself was not under threat from any power, South Asian countries felt threatened. Public dissent was viewed as a law and order problem and suppressed through the instruments of the State which led to greater public dissent, he added.
A retired civil servant, B.S. Raghavan, said it was dangerous to take a narrow view of security in a world without walls.
Inaugurating the seminar, former Anna University Vice-Chancellor, M. Anandakrishnan, drew attention to political stability, economic sovereignty, knowledge security and social unrest as issues of security. Such non-militaristic security concerns should be part of the comprehensive security concerns as weakness in any of these areas could make the country vulnerable, he said.
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