One institution in India – apart from the political one – that has kept up with constant failures and rare successes is our intelligence. Since 2005, the onslaught of terror has claimed 550 lives and now the aam aadmi wonders each day where the terrorists will strike next. And the sheer incompetence of our security and intelligence agencies, added to our inefficient political and judicial setup, apparently encourage the terrorists further.
In 1947, IB and the Military Intelligence (MI) were the only two intelligence agencies in India. Post-independence the Central Intelligence Bureau had the sole responsibility of internal and external intelligence in India. After its inability to foresee the Sino-Indian war of 1962 and India-Pakistan war of 1965, the IB was bifurcated in 1968 to create RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) as the external intelligence agency.
Today in 2008 we have eight such agencies: the IB, Directorate General of Security, the RAW, Directorate General Of MI, Air Intelligence, Naval Intelligence, the Defence Intelligence Agency and the National Technical Research Agency. Ironically, this multiplicity of intelligence agencies hampers efficiency as our agencies are nowhere near well-coordinated; rather they don’t see eye to eye when it comes to information sharing.
Each time India bleeds at the hands of terrorists, the nodal domestic intelligence agency, the IB is made the scapegoat. But there are certain hurdles that need to be overcome for efficient functioning of the bureau.
Firstly, it is terribly short of manpower. It has no more than 100 IPS officers as against the 250 posts sanctioned. Since state police forces offer swifter means of promotion and career advancement, most prefer to don khaki over the stressful IB jobs.
The lack of motivation is compounded by lack of skill. Intelligence gathering as a specialized skill has not yet been recognized in India. So state level branches of IB that gather information and intelligence are staffed with dissatisfied, unenthusiastic workers-often the leftover useless lot. Besides the bureau’s resources are also taken up by additional responsibilities like counter intelligence operations, security in the states and routine monitoring of state governments.
Thirdly, IB and RAW do not quite hang together. RAW’s unwillingness to share information with IB, which it sees as a political agency spying on political rivals, is legendary. One fiasco includes the neglect of available intelligence provided by the RAW to the IB, and the negligence and weak supervision by the IB and Tamil Nadu police which led to the assassination of ex-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
RAW too is no less responsible for successive intelligence debacles. Noted former RAW additional secretary B.Raman has criticized the agency for its “asymmetric growth” and it being “…strong in investigation, weak in prevention; strong in crisis management, weak in crisis prevention”.
In his controversial book ‘THE KAOBOYS OF R&AW’, released in 2007, Raman has exposed the political pressures exerted on the agency, apart from highlighting the need to reassess the functioning of the agency. For example he tells us about the former PM Narasimha Rao’s request to RAW to provide him a secret recording device to be used at his discussions with LK Advani during the Babri Masjid demolition crisis.
Another controversial book by Retd. Major General VK Singh, former secretary general of RAW alleges that political interference and corruption in the agency has made it vulnerable to defections. As a case in point, despite all precautions Rabinder Singh, Joint Secretary and head of RAW’s South East Asia Department, managed to defect with ‘sensitive’ files from RAW’s headquarters in Delhi to the US in June 2004.
RAW has also drawn flak for not providing information to defence intelligence agencies which might have altogether prevented the Kargil War with Pakistan in 1999. To blot our intelligence history further there are at least half a dozen instances of foreign penetration of many Indian agencies under the garb of intelligence cooperation.
But it is no use splitting hairs as the problem which tops the list for our agencies, politics and citizens is terrorism, which no longer is a “foreign-hand” thing but a pan-Indian phenomenon.
In the last decade or so, unlike the jehadis, our intelligence agencies haven’t improved much. Today terrorists have a common command and control; the investigative agencies do not. There is also no central mechanism for coordination and monitoring of data which can be stored in a central database. Investigations are conducted in an isolated and piecemeal manner, as the police and investigative agencies do not want to share information.
The solution lies in a model similar to one followed by the US. Post 9/11, all agencies were brought under a single Department Of Homeland Security and information sharing became a norm rather than the exception that it was.
More than a few top intelligence officials and most former officers feel that structural changes, along with a change of attitude in our polity are necessary for effective revamping of our intelligence. Our short-sighted leaders and statesmen should give party politics a backseat where national security is concerned. Apart from those in power, citizens too must become vigilant and contribute to local intelligence.
The need of the hour is motivated individuals, well-coordinated agencies which are not under the thumb of transient governments (especially in this era of coalitions).And this involves a strong will: political and otherwise at all levels of our society.
Chillibreeze's disclaimer: This is a contributed article and was published on Chillibreeze in November, 2009. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the views of Chillibreeze as a company. Chillibreeze has a strict anti-plagiarism policy. Please contact us to report any copyright issues related to this article. The relevance of the facts and figures cited (if any) could change after a period of time.
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