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New
Delhi, 03 August 2006
It seems that India's security and intelligence establishments are
under siege. Lt Gen Kapoor Chief of Staff in Pune, recently stated
India's internal security challenges were far more than the external
threats. Gen Musharraf had said the same for Pakistan, which also
had greater internal worries. It may well be that if the Army’s
powers are reduced in the next elections, then Pakistan may slide
into a break up mode.
Gen Kapoor may well be rapped for telling the truth, just as someone
in New Delhi who repeated it and went even further, when he stated
that Jointness between the Armed Forces and with paramilitary and
intelligence agencies was sadly lacking. The internal security
situation was bad, and the fervour of the Muslims worldwide was
rising and Tony Blair had said so too and UK’s Intelligence cannot
easily be faulted. Since the external threat was minimal the Indian
Government was sleeping, and deeply involved in (non existant?)
‘moles’ set up by Jaswant Singh to sell his book.
Speaking of Jointness India's MOD and MEA had still not realised
that in some 42 Indian missions abroad we had no uniformed officers
nominated as Defence Advisers. Some changes had been locally mooted
in the Embassy in Washington DC, as the situation had gone out of
control with umpteen visiting delegations for whom coordination was
lacking. Ambassador Ronnen Sen with experience of Sri Lanka ops,
Brass Tacks and Bofors, while he was in the PMO with Rajiv Gandhi,
obviouly knew how to sort out India’s brass.
Generally all countries had a nominated Defence Adviser but Indian
missions alone had separate Naval, Army and Air Force
Attaches/Advisers reporting to the Head of Mission (HOM). So the
siege begins for High Commissioners and Ambassadors on security
issues, as they already have a RAW man or more breathing down their
necks –– but even HOMs had done nothing except complain or bear
the pain for the comfortable life they lead compared to that in New
Delhi. The aim was to see that no complaints go out and now they
have no Foreign Minister to complain to and the Foreign Secretary is
one of the most travelled diplomats. In Delhi too the foreign
defence attaches in missions report to respective service HQs. This
is also an interesting phenomenon where the left hand does not know
what the other does, with regard to Attaches. It reflects lack of
Jointness. A recent seminar in S. Africa highlighted this again, as
S. Africa had to deal with each service very independently and it is
abroad one gets exposed to so many serving thinkers, who speak
freely, like Gen Kapoor had done.
The internal security battle too needs Jointness between the MOD,
three Armed Forces and the Home Ministry. In fact we noticed a trend
that it was only the powerful NSA who was able to get all heads
together in Srinagar last month and pulled up the police, army and
the para miliatry forces for not working together. The Army Chief
followed suit and uniquely called in the Home Secretary and all the
paramilitary and Intelligence heads to his office, but we are sure
this may be a one off event. A media press release was doled out
which was not at all necessary. We noticed that the Defence
Secretary's presence was not reported –– very few Defence
Secretaries have gone to a Service Chief's office for meetings. Some
have dropped in for coffee but not for formal meetings.
Most modern countries like USA have even Home Guards placed under
Pentagon control. Today the internal security situation is prime, as
the Naxalite threat is looming large in addition.
In the early 90s the Navy had commissioned a team to do a ‘threat
analysis’ and the same message had come out –– that internal
security is the main challenge –– and gave ideas how the core
competence of each force needs to be used to meet it –– but the
report was dust binned as it did not help to beef up Indian Navy's
budget, which is the only reason the Navy used to do threat analysis
then. The team was told internal security was the Army’s problem.
No wonder the powerful Home Minister Advani set the trend by
multiplying the paramilitary forces and increasing their numbers and
additional agencies without any thought of the command and control
problems or the internecine battles between the heads of these
organizations, who are all at Secretary level. The egos of the
bureaucrat Secretary in India's establishments, who are the true
Brahmins in a manner of speaking, are well known.
All this is wasted manpower and now fire power for internal
security. The Intelligence heads are also policemen bureaucrats who
gang up to see their empires grow and recently finding gaps of good
analysts, RAW and NTRO had inducted the good leftovers from the
Military thinking it may solve problems.
Today in Mumbai it is common knowledge that the train bomb blasts
were locally supported. The strife for the Army is not abating in J
and K or North East and the Naxalite menace is rising as a power to
collect taxes and protection money form those who can pay. Media
reports Indians in Nepal are coming under siege and something needs
to be done. These are serious trends and as Muslim anger grows
worldwide, even in an unaffected far off place like S Africa it is
rising. We saw that at a function, where strong speeches were made
even by Muslim women in flawless English and in western dresses but
with scarves round their heads. The fervor saying that their
brethren world over were being targeted was scary. The Israeli
strikes on Leabanon had sparked more anger.
Yet the lower echelons of the Armed Forces are in good shape. The
Navy's ships INS Mumbai Betwa and B’putra had done an outstanding
job off Lebanon by rescuing Indians and others in OP SUKOON. They
were on their way back from a Flag showing cruise to Greece and
Libya. They rescued over 1000 personnel and landed them at Larnaca
in Cyprus.
India’s Gorkhas in Sudan and other Indian Army units in the UN peace
keeping missions in Africa and Lebanon had done India proud and
India's UN mission funds for peace keeping kept in New York stand
swollen. India is also training reps of the world in its school at
USI in Delhi for UN postings. The IAF had saved many UN personnel
including Pakistanis by employing gun ships and our recent visit to
S. Africa tells us the Indian Navy too can be proud so can the
nation for all India has done in peace keeping. The Navy can be
proud of its training for submariners of S Africa. The officers and
men at INS Satavahana at Vishakapatnam trained 20 S African Navy
submariners who now man their new 209 submarines. Now the Government
wants to charge more as some Babu probably wants to show his
strength with his pen which with sharks in New Delhi, will always be
mightier than the sword. In fact the top brass for some reason keep
their swords sheathed in New Delhi for the goodies that follow. What
we wish to convey is that the mid level officers and men in our
Armed Forces are the world's best but it is our top management in
our security establishment that need to rise to their needs.
Admittedly the war room of the Navy leaked and many NSC secrets were
out despite hot shots in the NSC, but the people in the NSC must
understand computers. India’s counter intelligence has to be good
and those in NSC have to keep a low profile. Yet India's secrets
are trivia as the Officials Secrets Act of 1923 ensures that even
telephone numbers of some are secret and a tank design could well be
‘Top Secret’ for Indians, but a foreign supplier will know all about
it. The leaks need not worry us but the guilty must be brought to
book. All this needs jointness if one does not do an audit of the
security establishment in New Delhi for decision making, then MOD
will remain under siege and that is more serious. No one is thinking
collectively for the Nation's security and each service and
paramilitary force is empire building and the Police are looking
suspect wherever one goes. From sex in J and K and money elsewhere,
even murders can be hushed up and traffic accidents made to
disappear.
The silver lining by India's luck is India's economy is doing well
and the Government takes the credit as they should. It was the BJP's
plank that began it all, and late Pramod Mahjan's assets when totted
up one day will show that. Then again India's strength in English,
higher education and population have proved its assets for money
making even if infrastructure is creaking and the common Indian
makes do with it. These are India's inherent strengths and were
lauded at the Indian Ocean Maritime Recce Conference in
Johannesburg.
The Mumbai blasts have shown that the rage of the Muslims is at a
high as 7 blasts in Mumbai in 30 minutes on various trains must be a
big operation and much of it is local rage and not just Pakistani
sponsored terrorism as we would like to believe. We visited and met
people in Mumbai for analysis and the job was an inside Mumbai
supported job. The one million strong paramiliatry force is not
being used properly for homeland defence and that is the challenge.
The Army can say their jawans' families are pressurized by militants
in J and K and we will give that credence, but let us admit the
Clash of Religions seems to be coming with Muslim names emerging in
every suspect being rounded up. India needs to be on guard and MOD,
MEA and MHA must attend to issues raised by us. It will not be
difficult and a study of the Goldman Nicholas report of USA which
solved some of USA’s problems to bring in Jointness is needed. In
India however, the PM relies on a single powerful and capable NSA to
do it and hone Intelligence which is what he was appointed for.
But he has other things like the Indo US nuclear deal, the
China–India border and not to mention India–Pakistan imbroglio to
deal with. Indians must know even Sardar Patel could not do it
alone. He used strong means and some great Intelligence Chiefs and
the Army finally in Hyderabad to get the Maharajas to accede to
India, otherwise India’s geography left to a softer Nehru may have
been different. And we should never be a soft state and let down our
fine soldiers, sailors and airmen to do the dirty work when the
crunch comes in the end.
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