http://www.tribuneindia.com/2014/20140722/edit.htm#6
In the concluding part of the article on management of national security, the writer calls for the Centre to take a more proactive approach by adopting various initiatives for promoting trust and mutual understanding with the states.
N. N. Vohra
FOR progressively enhancing meaningful Centre-states relations in regard to national security management it would be useful for the Central Government to also consider various possible initiatives for promoting trust and mutual understanding between New Delhi and the state capitals. Towards this objective, to begin with, the Central Government could consider inducting representatives of the states in the National Security Advisory Board and the National Security Council, even if this is to be done on a rotational basis. The Central Government could also consider setting up an Empowered Committee of Home Ministers of states to discuss and arrive at pragmatic solutions to various important security- related issues, including the long-pending proposal to set up the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC). In this context, it would be relevant to note that the nation-wide consensus for introducing the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime in the country, a crucial tax reform which involves a Constitutional amendment for replacing the current indirect taxes, has been achieved by an Empowered Committee of Finance Ministers. It is reported that GST is likely to be enforced in the very near future.
Some of the doubts voiced by the states about the management of security-related issues arise from the style of functioning of institutions which are exclusively controlled by the Central Government. In this background, perhaps a more productive approach may lie in moving towards certain important institutions being jointly run by the Centre and the states.
Learning from other countries
An excellent example in this regard is the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), established by USA in the aftermath of 9/11. The Joint Terrorism Task Forces located in various cities across the USA include representatives from the Federal, State and Municipal enforcement agencies and perform several important roles, including the clearing of all terrorism-related information. Over time, functioning through joint institutions will enable the states to gain a well-informed, all-India perspective about the complex and sensitive issues which concern national security management and, in this process, also defuse their perennial complaint about the Central Government “interfering with the powers of the states in the arena of internal security management”. Needless to stress, if national security is to be satisfactorily managed, the states must effectively maintain internal security within their territories. Towards this end, they must urgently get to work for enlarging and upgrading their Intelligence and police organisations and security-administration systems. In this context, it is a matter of serious concern that the annual allocations for police comprise an extremely low percentage of the total budgeted expenditure of all the states and Union Territories in the country.
The scale of these allocations shall require to be significantly enhanced, particularly keeping in mind that about 80 per cent of the annual state police budgets go towards meeting the salaries and pensions of the constabularies and virtually no funds remain for undertaking the expansion or modernisation of the state police forces. Time-bound action would also require to be taken to ensure that the sanctioned posts of police personnel, lakhs of which remain vacant for years in the state and Union Territory police forces, are filled up on a time-bound basis.
It also needs being recognised that the ailments from which the state police forces have been suffering, for decades now, shall not get cured merely by providing larger budgetary allocations for their expansion and modernisation. It is extremely important to ensure that police reforms, which have been pending for decades, are carried through without any further delay. It is a matter of utter shame that after nearly seven decades since Independence, the police organisations in many states are still functioning under the colonial Police Act of 1861. Most states have also not taken the required steps to implement the Supreme Court's orders regarding the establishment of Police Complaint Authorities and State Security Commissions; segregation of law and order and investigation functions; setting up of separate intelligence and anti-terrorist units and taking varied other required actions for establishing modern and accountable police forces which would enable the effective functioning of the security-management apparatus.
It is also necessary to recognise that national security cannot be safeguarded unless the entire apparatus of the criminal justice system discharges its duties with competence, speed, fairness and complete honesty. Last year, nearly two crore criminal cases under the Indian Penal Code and Special Laws were awaiting trial. This sad state of neglect, accompanied by progressively declining conviction rates, has rightly generated the perception that crime is a low-risk and high-profit business in India.
Reform the judiciary
The functioning of the judicial apparatus, particularly at the lower and middle levels, suffers from serious logistical deficiencies — grossly insufficient number of courts and judges, prolonged delays in filling up long-continuing vacancies, lack of the required staff and essential facilities in the courts and so on. Questions are also being recurringly raised about the competence and integrity of those manning the judicial system and, in the recent years, allegations of shameful delinquencies have been made even against those who man the highest echelons in the judicial system, up to the august level of the Chief Justice of India!
Needless to stress, the most urgent measures are required to be implemented for enforcing complete objectivity and fairness in the selection and appointment of judicial officers and judges at all levels and stringent steps taken for enforcing the highest judicial standards and accountability for establishing a clean and strong judicial system which restores fear and respect among one and all for the Constitution and the Rule of Law.
Alongside the cleaning-up and revitalisation of the judicial system, it is necessary to weed out all obsolete laws and update and amend other statutes, many of which were enacted during the colonial era or in the early years after Independence, to ensure their relevance in the contemporary context. For instance, the Indian Evidence Act needs to be urgently reviewed to, interalia, provide for the permissibility of electronic evidence.
Wanted: A comprehensive law
It is also necessary to ensure prompt and professional investigations, competent and time-bound trials, and award of deterrent punishments to all those found guilty of unlawful acts. Towards this end, it shall be necessary to create cadres of competent Investigation Officers and Criminal Law Prosecutors and urgently enact a well-considered federal law for dealing with the rapidly increasing economic offences. Drawn up in appropriate consultation with the states, such a comprehensive law should cover the enlarging spectrum of economic and other major offences, some of which are closely linked with the funding of terror and organised crime networks.
It would be incorrect to assume that serious threats to national security emanate only from the activities of Naxalites, terror groups and the mafia networks. Corruption at various levels, with which the entire governance apparatus is permeated, is another factor which adversely impacts our national security interests. Year in and year out, for the past several decades now, major scams and scandals have been getting exposed and India continues to hold a shamefully high position in the Global Corruption Index.
It needs to be stressed that corruption vitiates and disrupts the Rule of Law and destroys the very foundations of the administrative and legal apparatus. The prevalence of corrupt practices at various levels generates anger, despair and helplessness among the people at large, compelling them to lose trust in the functioning of the governmental machinery. Cynicism and the loss of hope engenders an environment which leads to the alienation of the common man, paving the way for attraction to the gun culture and extremist ideologies.
Criminal-politician nexus
As regards the subversion of the governmental machinery from within, it may be recalled that, consequent to the serial bomb blasts in Mumbai in March 1993, the Government of India had set up a Committee to ascertain how Dawood Ibrahim and other mafia elements had been able to establish such powerful networks. The report of this Committee (generally referred to as “Vohra Committee Report” or the “Criminal Nexus Report") had concluded that, in several parts of the country where crime syndicates/mafia groups have developed significant muscle and money power and established linkages with government functionaries, political leaders and others, the unlawful elements have been able to carry out their criminal activities with ease and impunity. Over two decades have elapsed since the Criminal Nexus Report was furnished. While I am unaware of the action which must have been taken on this report, there is little doubt that the criminal nexus has since spread its tentacles far and wide and poses a serious threat to national security. The national security apparatus cannot function effectively unless it is manned by appropriately qualified, highly trained and experienced functionaries. It is, therefore, extremely important that well-planned steps are taken for very early establishing a cadre of officers drawn from various required disciplines, selected on an all-India basis, who are provided the best available training in identified areas of expertise and deployed in the security-management apparatus all over the country.
A proposal to set up a dedicated pool of trained officers, drawn from various streams, who would spend their entire careers in the security-management arena, was made by me in the Report of the Task Force on Internal Security, which had been set up by the NDA Government in early 2000. The Task Force Report (September 2000) had recommended the broad framework for establishing a pool of trained officers for manning the security management agencies run by the Government of India. This recommendation was approved in 2001 by a Group of Ministers (GoM) chaired by the then Union Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. Thirteen years have since elapsed. The decision of the Group of Ministers has not been implemented, possibly for no better reason than that this matter has not been considered important enough!
Establish a separate security cadre
The security environment, in India's neighbourhood and far beyond, has been progressively deteriorating. Grave consequences may have to be faced if there is any delay in revamping and tightening the security- management apparatus which cannot continue to be run by functionaries of varied backgrounds who are drawn from one or the other service.
To make up for the very considerable time which has already been lost, it would be enormously beneficial if the Central Government takes the bold step of establishing a National Security Administrative Service whose members, selected from among the best available in the country, are imparted intensive training in specialised areas before being deployed to run the security-management institutions all over the country. After the November 2008 terror attack in Mumbai, the Government of India had hurriedly enacted a law to set up a National Investigation Agency (NIA), on the pattern of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of USA, to investigate and prosecute terror offences. As per its legal framework, the NIA has the authority to investigate and prosecute only certain specified offences which are committed within the country and which affect national security.
NIA needs to be empowered
The NIA has no extra-territorial jurisdiction and no powers to probe incidents which occur outside India, as for example the very recent militant attack on the Consulate of India in Herat. The Director NIA does not have the powers, enjoyed by the Directors General of Police of states, to permit an Investigating Officer dealing with a terror crime to seize or attach property. Also, unlike as in the case of the CBI, the NIA is not empowered to depute its Investigating Officers abroad for direct interaction with a foreign agency which is investigating a major terror act which directly or indirectly affects our national security interests. The NIA's functioning in the past six years also shows that the police authorities in the states are reluctant and take their own time in handing over to the NIA even major crime cases which may have serious inter-state or nationwide ramifications.
Many offences, including major IPC crimes which may be directly linked to terror activities, have still to be brought under the NIA's jurisdiction. Thus, briefly, the NIA, as presently constituted, does not have the legal authority for taking the required action to pre-empt or prevent a terror crime, even when it functions in coordination with the concerned states. Needless to stress, the NIA needs to be fully empowered, on the most immediate basis, if it is to serve the purpose for which it was established.
Speed is the key
In the context of the problems, it would be seen that, even after the gruesome terror attack in Mumbai, in November 2008, our country has still to evolve a National Security Policy and put in place effective mechanisms for implementing it. Also, the ground has still not been cleared to promulgate a well-considered federal law under which a fully empowered central agency can take immediate cognisance and promptly proceed to investigate any federal offence, within the country and abroad, without having to lose precious time in seeking varied clearances and going through time-consuming consultative processes. Any delay, which is inherent in working within a consultative system, would have the grave danger of virtually ensuring the failure of investigations, particularly as the terror groups strike their targets and get away with lightning speed. In the background of the brief overview of the more worrying national security management concerns, I would like to conclude by briefly reiterating that:
(i) The absence of a bipartisan approach has led to several states questioning the Central Government's leadership role in national security management.
(ii) The Constitution of India prescribes that the states shall be responsible for the maintenance of public order and that the Union Government has the duty to protect the states against internal disturbances. A holistic National Security Policy and the mechanisms for its administration must be urgently finalised in suitable consultation with the states. The Central Government must not lose any more time in evolving the required Centre-states understanding for effective national security management.
(iii) Besides finalising the National Security Policy, the Central Government shall also need to take time bound steps for:
(a) establishing appropriate institutions/ agencies for effective security management across the length and breadth of the country;
(b) enacting laws and establishing all required processes and procedures for the prompt investigation and trial of federal offences;
(c) establishing a National Security Administrative Service for manning and operating the security management apparatus in the entire country.
To conclude, I shall yet again reiterate that if the security, unity and integrity of India is to be preserved and protected then there is no more time to be lost. The Central and the state governments must immediately forge all required understandings and take every necessary step for ensuring that there is not the slightest chink in the enforcement of national security. — Excerpted from the First Air Commodore Jasjit Singh Memorial Lecture on July 18, 2014.
The writer, a former Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Union Home Secretary and Defence Secretary, is currently Governor of Jammu and Kashmir.
The views expressed in the article are in his personal capacity and not as a representative of government.
The states’ record of handling security on its own has so far been poor.
Security matters
Besides finalising the National Security Policy, the Central Government needs to take time- bound steps for:
* Establishing appropriate institutions/agencies for effective security management across the length and breadth of the country
* Enacting laws and establishing all required processes and procedures for the prompt investigation and trial of federal offences
* Establishing a National Security Administrative Service for manning and operating the security management apparatus in the entire country
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