Indian Defence Review

Costal Security

The Maharashtra State Government is required to patrol the seas up to 12 nautical miles. Beyond that, the Coast Guard comes into play. The Maharashtra security establishment did not have regular interactions with the Coast Guard; notwithstanding the fact that there were regular intelligence alerts about the LeT terrorists plan to reach Mumbai. The HLEC comments:

“The resources available with Mumbai Police were not adequate to conduct sea patrolling so as to intercept the boat used by the terrorists and hence nothing perhaps could be done on receipt of such intelligence alerts.” (The HLEC Report: Section 2, Para 2.10.3)

“The Committee is of the view that the present (coastal security) arrangements are of cosmetic nature.” (The HLEC Report: Section 2, Para 50)

“Despite receiving as many as six alerts about the sea route likely to be used by the terrorists, no significant steps had been taken by the state Government to beef up coastal security by having regular interactions with the Cost Guards.” (The HLEC Report: Section 2, Para 47.1)

“Two Pakistani LeT terrorists (Abdul Majeed and Mohd. Jumed) who were arrested in Rajauri1 told the local Police that 8 militants had almost reached Mumbai in March 2007 but were let off by the Coast Guards. They were later arrested by Rajauri Police. This incident itself would have proved that warning of sea borne attack was real.” (The HLEC Report: Section 2, Para 3.75)

The findings of HLEC are shocking to say the least. The importance of coastal security cannot be over stated but the manner in which this important organ of the security system did not function facilitated the terrorists to reach their target without hindrance.

A Road Map

Have we done enough to build a robust system which can ensure safety and security to our citizens? A string of terrorist attacks in the recent past even in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad would suggest that a lot needs to be done to revamp the security system that we have. The revamp calls for a number of measures to be taken urgently.

First, there is need to augment the strength of the police force which is woefully inadequate if we compare it with the developed countries like the US or the UK. India has 176.2 policemen2 for every 100,000 citizen while the US and the UK have 256 and 307 policemen respectively, even though they are not faced with the daunting internal security challenges which India faces on account of its geographic location, multicultural society and a number of fault lines due to historic and other reasons. The fact is not only that the sanctioned strength is inadequate, but that there are staggering number of vacancies in different ranks which stood at 5, 39,479 as on 1 January 2012.3 This has further reduced the availability of policemen for security and other tasks. The recruitment process is slow and cumbersome which is evident from the fact that only 82,300 police personnel4 were recruited in the year 2011, which covers only 12 per cent of the vacancies. There is an urgent need to speed up the recruitment process.

Second, selecting the right people for the right job is the key to achieve objectives of any organization. Unfortunately, the recruitment system in the states and Central Police Organizations leaves much to be desired. Human Resource experts are not part of the recruitment committees and there are complaints of corruption and irregularities in the recruitment process. There is an acute need to standardize the norms of recruitment and institutionalize a fair and transparent system of recruitment of police personnel. Police Recruitment Boards headed by senior police officers of impeccable integrity need to be constituted in all states.

Third, training is a critical requirement in developing a competent professional. Presently, barring a few exceptions, most of the Police Colleges and Academies across the country are staffed with disgruntled, cynical and incompetent faculty members. The young trainees, instead of being inspired, are de-motivated and disillusioned. The need, therefore, is to post highly experienced and competent faculty members as is being done in the training institutions of the defense forces. Besides, training institutions in most states lack basic facilities like good libraries, classrooms, equipments, good vehicles, FSL mini labs, etc. There is need to provide conducive environment and modern equipments for training.

Regular in-service training programmes are also necessary for updating professional skills of personnel and keeping them abreast with the developments affecting the security scenario. Currently, police constables constitute around 80 per cent of the police organization. After their basic training, they are barely exposed to any in-service training program. This is unfortunate given that the constabulary is at the grassroots and their performance impacts the response to a terror attack. Even six years after 26/11 there is no improvement on this front. In-service training programs need to be organized for all ranks every year. Mobile training units can also be constituted to train constables at the police station itself in case they cannot be brought to district Headquarters.

Fourth, the crippling shortage of capacity in the Intelligence Bureau (IB) as well as the state intelligence departments is well known. After the recent Hyderabad blasts, Praveen Swami – a noted security analyst – aptly remarked, ‘Even after five years after 26/11, India faces intelligence famine which is mainly due to capacity deficit’.5 To have adequate intelligence-led policing, the capacity of intelligence agencies both at the central and the state level needs to be substantially augmented.

Fifth, a bulk of the police forces in India is operating at technological levels that date back to the early twentieth century. However, to remain ahead of criminals and terrorist organizations, the police must harness leading edge technologies for prevention and detection of crime. It is reported that average visitor to Central London is captured on film three hundred times in a single day. In developed countries, technology is used to track law breakers, including terrorists, using bank and other electronic records. A person can be profiled by medical history, by consumer tastes, by travel habits etc. It is high time that Indian police also takes advantage of leading edge technologies in all areas of police functioning.

Sixth, although the NIA has been created (with legal powers to investigate terrorism related cases all over India), what is more important is to have an outfit on the pattern of National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) of the U.S. Such an agency would have all India jurisdictions to prevent terror attacks by pre-emptive actions. Instead of creating a new organization, NCTC can be a part of the IB. It is unfortunate that even after six years of 26/11 there is no national consensus on the powers and jurisdiction of the proposed NCTC.

Seventh, the reorganization of Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) needs to be pursued as a critical national security reform. Presently, the ministry is responsible for a large number of matters which have no connection to internal security. These include – census of population, registration of births and deaths, implementation of the provisions of the constitution relating to official languages, appointment of Governors, Padma awards (national awards in India), nominations of members to the two houses of Parliament (Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha), freedom fighters’ pensions and the schemes for rehabilitation of migrants from former West Pakistan/East Pakistan, provisions of relief to Sri Lankan and Tibetan refugees, constitutional, legislative and administrative matters relating to Union Territories including National Capital Territory of Delhi, prevention, mitigation and preparedness to deal with national and man-made disasters and for co-ordination of response, relief and rehabilitation after a disaster strikes and many more. But proposals for restructuring and reform remain confined to comments and files.6 More importantly, given the federal nature of India’s security architecture, the resistance of states in bringing about change is enormous who perceive proposals as the Union Government’s move to encroach upon their police powers.7

India, being a vast country affected by a million mutinies, has scores of burning issues that require focused attention of the Union Home Minister, Home Secretary and other top echelons in the Ministry on a daily basis. The need of the hour is either to carve out a separate ministry for internal security or shed the subjects not directly connected with internal security and policing issues.

Finally, the state must invest more liberally for strengthening and modernizing the internal security system. Here we can learn from China, which earmarked $123.65 billion8 in the year 2013 for internal security compared to $9.86 billion that the Union Finance Ministry set apart for internal security, including modernization of police forces of India. An interesting point to be noted is that China’s internal security budget at $119 billion is higher than their defence budget and almost double than our internal security budget that the Union and State Governments earmark for spending.

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Conclusion

The response of the state through the police and intelligence system to the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai was anything but professional. In the aftermath of 26/11, quite a few significant measures like the creation of NIA, NSG hubs in metropolitan cities, etc have been taken but a lot more remains to be done to improve the functioning of the state police forces and the intelligence apparatus including effective operationalisation of NATGRID and NCTC, which is the least that the people of India can expect after the tragedy of 26/11.