Note4students

Mains Paper 3: Internal Security | Security challenges & their management in border areas

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

Prelims level: IED

Mains level: Shortcomings in India’s response to security threats and need of a national security vision.

NEWS

CONTEXT

Tragic loss of 40 gallant CRPF jawans, killed in a “fidayeen” attack has unearthed how India remain deficient in intelligence-analysis, inter-agency coordination, and, above all, a national security doctrine.

Ramifications of recent attack

• The success of vehicle-borne IED being used in J&K could mark a new phase in the ongoing counter-insurgency operations.
• An urgent review of the quality and timeliness of intelligence inputs and the standard operating procedures (SOP) being followed by the armed police force convoys is required.
• It’s another opportunity for reflection and introspection about our management of crisis situations in general, and of Pakistan’s role in Kashmir, in particular.

Uncertain trumpet

• Woolly-headed thinking, lack of resolve and absence of a coherent long-term vision iregarding national security perspective
• Crisis after crisis has caught our nation by surprise — unprepared and invariably in the reactive mode.
• Kashmir issue to become a pressure-point for exploitation by our western and eastern neighbours,

India’s “strategic restraint” has resulted into

• Pakistan waging war on us four times since Partition.
• Pakistan’s three-decade-long strategy of “bleeding India by a thousand cuts” — using terrorists and religious fanatics .

Major missteps by India

• Describing, “acts of war” by Pakistan as “cross-border terrorism”
• Labeling Pakistani perpetrators as “non-state actors”; providing Pakistan the opening to declare that they were Kashmiri “freedom fighters”.

National Security Doctrine Revival

• National security has suffered neglect for decades due to pre-occupation of our politicians with electoral politics.
• National Security should be first priority on the government’s and Parliament’s time .
• There has been a gap in political pronouncements in our military capabilities — material as well as organisational.

Grave Instances of National Security Failure

• In 2001,there was a terrorist attack on Parliament.
• In 2008, a handful of seaborne terrorists held Mumbai hostage for 96 hours
• Pakistani fidayeen attacks on the Pathankot air base, followed by the Uri and Nagrota army camps — and now, Pulwama.

Way forward

• Having created an elaborate national security framework, post Pokhran II, India has strangely shied away from promulgating a doctrine .
• The current juncture would be apt for the urgent promulgation of a security-cum-defence doctrine.
• Benefits Of such doctrine
  • Public version defines India’s vital interests, aims and objectives .
  • It will not only become the basis for strategy-formulation, contingency-planning and evolution of SOPs, but also send a reassuring message to our public.

Conclusion

Setting in place clear “red lines” for adversary nations and non-state entities will mean that, in future, no further notice is required for instant punitive or retaliatory actions for any infringement of India’s red lines.