After the terrible attacks in the last week of November in Mumbai, where 10 heavily armed militants who came in from the sea virtually held the city to ransom for almost 3 days, and in which more than 180 civilians and a few of the best Police Officers in Mumbai were killed, I was dismayed that the top leadership of the country is thinking of setting up one more intelligence / security organization - this one apparently to fight terrorism. We should move away from such knee-jerk reactions. Having more organizations will only add to the overall confusion. The fact is that India has enough institutions to gather intelligence and thwart organised attacks on our people and our way of life. There is RAW for external intelligence, there is the Intelligence Bureau for internal intelligence, and then there is the local Police force in each state. Even within the Police, cities like Mumbai which are prone to terrorist attacks have anti-terrorist squads (ATS). But now we know just how effective this squad was, with its top cop laying down his life bravely defending the city. For us to protect ourselves effectively, the following steps need to be taken –
- As one correspondent in the Mint has pointed out, we need something like a SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactics) team within the Police. This could either be done by keeping resident NSG commandoes in India’s big cities or, alternatively, the ATS can be split into two parts – one should be an intelligence wing, which will carry out investigations and intelligence; the other should be a group of trained anti-terrorist commandoes who are suitably trained and equipped to act in situations like this so that we do not have to rely on mobilizing Naval commandoes / central forces wherein precious time and lives are lost.
- Police reforms are imperative. The service conditions, equipment and training given to our Policemen in most of the states in India is abysmal. Political meddling further demoralises the Police Force, and what we are left with are corrupt, ill-equipped and brutal police forces which are feared by ordinary citizens and derided, or even worse, patronised, by organised criminals, many of them having politcal connections. As a society, we need to train our Policemen (especially the 'men'; the officers are of fairly high mettle, thanks to the tough competition that they have to crack just to get into their uniforms), arm them properly with weapons and communication equipment and ensure that they are paid well enough to hold their heads high and live with dignity without begging from traffic violators. This would also mean better facilties, like housing, medical facilities, life and health insurance and English Medium schools for their children. At the officer level, this would translate into freedom from political interference in the matter of postings and appointments. As Police reform Commission after Commission has recommended, we cannot have a professional Police force which can enforce the rule of law impartially, unless there is fixity of tenure; and postings of Officers of, and above, the SP level, are decided by a professional committee. This committee should have representatives from all the key stakeholders - the State Home Ministry, the Police force (like the DGP of the state) and a retired Judge of the High Court or Supreme Court to preside over the deliberations. Decisions can be taken by majority. Junior appointments at the city / District level can be made by the Police Commissioner / SP with appeals (which should rarely be entertained) lying with the DGP of the state. It was heart rending to hear how our Policemen rushed at the terrorists with sticks (Lathis) when the latter were armed with automatic weapons. Today we have managed to catch a live terrorist because of the tremendous bravery shown by ASI Tukram G. Omble in holding to an AK47 pointed at him even as bullets riddled his body.
- Actionable Intelligence: One point that has often been mentioned recently, is 'actionable intelligence'. For far too long, we have ignored the importance of an intelligence network. It appears that RAW had even intercepted messages that referred to an attack on Mumbai, but these did not reach the Mumbai Police. The way I see it, this is a failure of the IB and the National Security Advisor (NSA). Having a doddering old NSA, however competent a Police officer he might have been, definitely didn't help.
- Stop the infighting - we fell once to the British and lived through close to 200 years of slavery, because we could not come together as one; let us not repeat that folly again. We must reject political leaders who attempt to divide us on linguistic, caste or religious lines, trying to keep us from focusing on the critical issues and powerful external threats, and creating a false constituency for themselves.
- Good people in government - finally, for all the shrieking by News anchors, all the candle light vigils, all the furious typing in blogs like this, nothing is going to be really achieved, unless there are good, competent people in government who do something to change things. Whether it be setting up of SWAT teams or equipping forces with better bullet proof jackets, it is the government that will do it. And we have to ensure that good, sensible people make it to the government, by entering the political process or by entering the bureaucracy. The least we can do is to participate in the political process by voting for the right people.
- Jettison the soft state image - We should declare that we will refuse to negotiate; whether with Pirates in Somalian waters, or with terrorists holding people hostage. We should take the stance of 'shoot first and then talk'. A country that aspires to be a world power cannot be held to ransom by Pirates and small bands of armed militants. And the next time China stakes claim on Arunachal Pradesh, India's foreign Minister shouldn't just say that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India. He should first challenge China to come and take it from us if they dare to. Moreover, we should declare that if China lays claim on Arunachal Pradesh again, then India would like to stake its claim on Shanghai !
