India takes critical and bold steps to bolster internal security

The last decade can be viewed as a watershed period in contemporary history, especially in aspects pertaining to internal security management. India has taken extremely bold steps leading to tectonic changes in matters that have a direct bearing on law and order and major irritants that were areas of concern.

India’s security management is often viewed as a factor that is almost synonymous with the Kashmir situation. By the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A on 5 August 2019, a resolute nation gave an unambiguous and no-nonsense signal that Kashmir is an integral part of India.

This was preceded by a suicide attack orchestrated by Jaish-e-Mohammad on 14 February 2019 on a CRPF convoy, killing 40 of our brave jawans. In an unprecedented move, India dispatched a fleet of Mirage fighters that decimated a training facility/madrasa of the Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists. Many of their members were reportedly killed, and there is incontrovertible satellite imagery evidence to prove this.

Pakistan continued its campaign of disinformation relentlessly to malign India but failed miserably! So much so that the high-profile meeting of the UN Security Council on 16 August 2019 cut no ice and proved to be a damp squib and Pakistan was left isolated!

These decisive actions left no one in doubt that a confident and resurgent India could not be pushed around any longer and if anyone manipulates around, as it happened earlier, there are bound to be consequences which will prove to be disastrous for the perpetrators.

Therefore, it does not come as a surprise that the number of civilian casualties and those of the paramilitary forces has come down drastically in the last 10 years, whereas the number of terrorists neutralised has gone up exponentially. Thanks to use of sophisticated anti-riot equipment, non-lethal weaponry, advanced electronic technology, stone pelting is almost extinct; terrorist outfits have suffered extensive damage and casualties, leading to irreparable damage to their credibility and mass appeal. But more was to come in the form of choking their financial income and freezing their ill-gotten assets.

The Enforcement Directorate in a crackdown has attached assets worth Rs 12 crore from former chief minister Farooq Abdullah in a matter linked to gross financial irregularities committed in the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association. The Comptroller and Auditor General has recommended recovery of the illegally released amount which was sanctioned in 2014 by Dr Haseeb Drabu while he was a minister in the then PDP government. The CAG has also recommended the current government should review all such questionable grants.

Many are feeling the heat as the Enforcement Directorate, NIA and CBI are scrutinising various aspects of their questionable financial dealings. The nexus between anti-national elements and some political persons stands exposed today as never before, as they are alleged to be a part of a nefarious web of money laundering, involving hawala and possibly cryptocurrency.

The notorious Yasin Malik, key architect behind the atrocities on Kashmiri Pandits, their genocide and its aftermath, stands convicted and discredited today. One needs to view this against the backdrop of his being a VIP state guest at various power centres in Delhi, enjoying hospitality as a state guest and being feted as an “activist” by the likes of Arundhati Roy, Swami Agnivesh, etc. He and others enjoyed innumerable state privileges, and elaborate police security, free of cost; now, they are all begging for mercy!

Left-Wing Extremism, more commonly known as Naxalism, is also a major concern for the government for the last few decades. Ajit Doval, the then Director of the Intelligence Bureau who is currently the National Security Adviser (NSA), while addressing the conference of Directors General of Police in Delhi in 2008 had said, in the presence of the then prime minister Manmohan Singh, that 40 per cent of the landmass in India was under the impact of Naxalism.

View this in the present scenario, wherein there has been no hijacking of trains, no capture of jails and liberation of prisoners. To the contrary, surrender of top Naxal leadership across India, and coordinated, well-planned and structured operations against the armed cadres have been extremely fruitful, giving positive results. A strong and systematic intelligence gathering and sharing mechanism have galvanised the security forces for an aggressive counter-offensive.

The so-called urban Naxals have also been defanged to a large extent by a thoroughly comprehensive and elaborate investigation by the NIA. However, a concerted, well-orchestrated, toolkit-oriented attack has been the new challenge for the government and the law enforcement agencies.

It is to the credit of NIA, Enforcement Directorate, CBI and other state police investigating agencies, that despite this one-sided perverse propaganda, very few cases of human rights violation or complicit investigation came to light.

The area domination schemes and the close coordination among the various state armed police forces, especially the elite ones, like the Greyhound of Andhra Pradesh, the Cobras of various states, and the Central Paramilitary forces, the induction of futuristic technologies, especially those imported from Israel, have sounded the death knell of this armed insurgency.

Militancy and insurgency in the northeastern states received topmost priority from the policymakers and the Ministry of Home Affairs. Consequently, measures like customised schemes for the development of the North East, special packages for infrastructure development, not using disproportionate force against the public in agitations, greater emphasis on talks and negotiations, requisite changes to give political autonomy, decentralisation, ensuring the sanctity and protection of tribal rights, improving infrastructure like road and rail connectivity, attracting optimum business investments, etc, have gained attention.

The Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) has been a bone of contention for a long time. Currently, this act is applicable in Nagaland, Manipur, eight police stations of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam only. More importantly the Government of India has delegated the power to repeal this act to respective States.

In a significant development, the Government of India, with active Bangladeshi cooperation, has succeeded in pushing out many anti-India insurgent groups which is a major diplomatic and strategic victory.

The law-and-order situation in the country is very much under control when compared to the past. In India, generally, things are projected badly than they actually are. In the United States, things are just the opposite. There were 336 incidents of mass murder in the US in 2018, but this figure shot up to 610 in 2020. A mass murder is defined as an incident where four or more persons are killed in a single incident. Yet, the US has the temerity to lecture India about human rights violations!

However, it is to the credit of the law enforcement machinery, the police department and the intelligence apparatus that important lessons in respect of strategy were drawn, and anti-social elements were dealt with a firm hand. The last few years have seen innumerable success stories for the nation, but this is certainly not the time to rest on past laurels, but to prepare for an all-out offensive against those groups wanting to foment trouble, as in the case of anti-CAA agitations and the farmers’ agitation. A vigilant police and public machinery, equipped with the latest technology and empowered by modernisation, can be trusted to give a befitting reply to anti-national elements, rumour mongers, the social media storm troopers, among others.

The writer is a former Director-General of Police, Uttar Pradesh. Views expressed are personal.

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