New Delhi

Focus on national security

The Mumbai terror attacks have eventually forced our policy-makers to come up with a new integrated system for national security. Many police officers, however, are hoping that the new set-up will be devoid of the shortcomings inherent in most government organisations that have rendered them inefficient.

The latest terrorist strikes have exposed several gaping loopholes in the present system. They have revealed that agencies with similar job responsibilities have been working in isolation; that there is barely any real-time sharing of actionable intelligence among them; that manpower and infrastructure are not being shared judiciously; and that all proposals benefiting the system are being shelved citing various reasons. Police officers say that at present the agencies rather than passing on information mostly end up passing the buck.

Citing an example of how resources were being mishandled, a senior public servant said four different agencies – the Navy, the Coast Guard, the Customs and the Police – are entrusted with coastal security, but it now appears that they were all working individually in isolation. “Egoistic mentality and credit-seeking attitude of some of the agencies are two of the reasons behind such a trait,” said a senior officer, adding that such factors amounted to deterioration in performance.

Coming down heavily on the work culture of most government organisations, another senior officer said: “The worst is the prevailing babudom that has crippled the entire system. Many babus employ different means to scuttle proposals. They come up with petty queries and raise questions after keeping the files with them for long periods, wasting precious time in the process. Such officials arrive at decisions mostly without having any practical knowledge or without appreciating ground realities.”

A Delhi Police officer pointed out that because of bureaucratic hassles “a small item like barricade” is not being purchased and supplied for the past several months.

“It is not like procuring a state-of-the-art gadget which requires setting up of a technical committee,” said the officer, adding that in many cases the money spent on investigations is disbursed only months later.

Another reason for inefficiency is said to be the incompetence of officials in finding simple and viable solutions. “From my experience I strongly believe there always are multiple solutions to a particular problem, however limited the resources may be. It only requires a clear mind and an earnest approach,” the official said.

Lauding the Centre’s decision to institute an umbrella counter-terror agency, police officers suggest that agencies engaged in similar work should also be brought under a unified command to improve the level of coordination and bring about unity of purpose.

They feel that units which do not have any practical use should be disbanded immediately and the manpower trained and diverted for purposeful use.

“Specialists from various fields should be brought together to deal with the respective areas of operation,” said another police officer, adding that emphasis should be on participative management by obliterating hierarchies and bringing down walls between various security and intelligence agencies.

The prime goal must be to pre-empt, detect and counter terror activities.

Devesh K. Pandey

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