Ineptitude and inertia threaten internal security

The blame for the triple coordinated bomb blasts triggered by yet unidentified terrorist groups in Mumbai on July 13, which has taken a toll of 24 lives and inflicted severe injuries, shock and trauma upon 131 lay citizens, must be laid squarely at the door of the scams-tainted Congress-led UPA-II government which has lost its mooring and is drifting aimlessly in a sea of troubles. On 26/11/2008 when Mumbai was attacked by reportedly Pakistan-based terrorists who sailed into the city with impunity via the Arabian Sea route, captured two five-star hotels and shot up the historic Victoria Terminus railway station taking 166 lives and injuring 293 citizens, the Central government and Union home minister P. Chidambaram gave the nation a solemn undertaking that substantial initiatives would be taken to tighten the countrys internal security services and agencies to prevent and forestall terrorist strikes.Typically, despite the gravity and urgency of the situation with terrorist groups having struck Mumbai 11 times in 18 years including the bombing of local train commuters in July 2006, very little has been done to fulfill that promise. A proposal to establish a National Crime Research Centre (NCRC) which would gather and store intelligence about criminal and terrorist groups, has not yet got off the ground. Neither have the proposals of the Ram Pradhan Committee, constituted to investigate the security lapses which facilitated the 26/11 bloodbath in Mumbai, been implemented. Quite clearly, in light of the latest terrorist atrocity in Mumbai, urgent initiatives are required to prevent motley terrorist groups striking civilian targets at will. The proposed NCRC supplied with the latest equipment, labs and highly-trained professionals, needs to be established immediately to start feeding information into the National Investigative Agency Service and Intelligence Bureau (whose top personnel should be US-trained), which should be invested with the power to supersede state-level police and other investigators to hunt down terrorists. Moreover its of utmost importance that NIAS and IB should (on the lines of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, USA) be completely autonomous crimes detection organisations whose directors are invested with suo motu powers of investigation and prosecution. All this needs to be completed within 60-90 days, not spread over years in typical government style. Yet even this is unlikely to mitigate terrorist activity on Indian soil unless long-pending police reforms recommended by the National Police Commission (1979-81) and the Justice Malimath Committee (2003) are implemented. With aggregate annual expenditure on internal security less than 1 percent of GDP (cf. 3 percent on external security aka defence), terrorist-targeted India is woefully under-policed with a mere 130 police personnel per 100,000 citizens (cf. 233 in the US and the 222 recommended by the United Nations). Moreover its critical to contemporise the curriculums and training given to police officers. Coterminously, a coordinated diplomatic effort needs to be orchestrated to improve relations with our neighbour nations. A country hated by all its neighbours cannot be free of exported terrorism. Global porn wave reversing womens emancipation One of the more anti-social and…