The current paradigms of Internal Security

Security is essentially a combination of measures designed to protect the nation from the 'covert' offensives of an enemy. Security is not a one-time event as the threat scenario can change over a period of time -- it is also in principle to be regarded as a 'matter of degree' always open to improvement.

The spectrum of friends and enemies is not static and therefore an ongoing evaluation even of existing friendships is a requirement of security. Intelligence is the anchor of security- being the information that throws light on the hidden plans of the adversary.

Intelligence is defined also as 'information for action' and it is easy to understand how security classically fails when there is 'lack of information', but why it also fails -- and this is not uncommon -- for failure of 'communication' to the action taking authorities or for 'failure of action' itself.

Intelligence is not easy to come by in these times of covert offensives in which terrorism was used as an instrument and logically therefore no piece of Intelligence howsoever small can be dismissed as 'in actionable' for it might as well prove to be the proverbial tip of the iceberg.

A major task of the Intelligence set up is to operationally develop the available Intelligence for reducing the 'gap between information and action' and trace the source, place and time of the 'threat' for making its neutralisation possible.

The profession of Intelligence requires specially trained people who accepted anonymity by choice, had infinite persistence and worked with a commitment for the 'national cause'.

In the backdrop of this all, the challenge of handling the current threats to national security has become formidable calling for maximum Intelligence coordination and integral responses. Apart from the operational skills, Intelligence also depended on competent analysis of open-source information and it in this direction that data analytics and scan of cyber communications had emerged as the new Intelligence tasks of ever-growing importance.

NATGRID is the central data bank that would yield information of both operational and strategic value and NIC is the network facilitating information sharing and action. What is new on the security front is the advantage social media had provided to the adversary to conduct clandestine operations for raising 'sleeper cells', raising 'lone wolves' for acts of terrorism and spreading radicalisation.

Running scan of social media has to be made comprehensive enough and suspect websites have to be examined in depth to pick up signals of hostile activity. The cases of terrorists killing of two Hindus at Amravati and Udaipur to avenge the allegedly insulting remark about Prophet Mohammad made by now suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma during a TV programme, have brought out how Pakistan linked WhatsApp groups were used in the run up to these gruesome events.

Intelligence -- both central and local -- has to identify all suspects for prompt Police action and legal pursuit. A far more audacious form of terror activity directed from across the border has come into play and a deterrence has to be created against it without losing time.

Pakistan's ISI is using both extremist Deobandi and Bareilvi streams of Islamic spectrum as instruments in the proxy war against India -- the vulnerability of India to this mischievous intrusion from outside has to be fully assessed and measures both punitive and sociological evolved for maintaining internal security.

Representative Muslim organisations must be persuaded to condemn the advocacy of Jehad for dealing with any Minority issues in democratic India that had a secular constitution. The Indian democratic State should give no quarters to political elements voicing 'separatism' and secession and - what is worse - doing so on a note of violence.

A new danger has arisen from a certain kind of civil society groups and 'think tanks' that devoted themselves -- for political reasons -- to building subversive narratives of majoritarianism, autocratic rule and anti-minority disposition of the Modi regime and in concert with foreign lobbies and elements of the opposition even questioned the need for India to have a 'national' identity.

Many of them deliberately project 'nationalism' as a symbol of Hindu India ignoring the fact that the Preamble of our Constitution called upon the people of India to promote unity and integrity of the 'nation'. All this amounts to playing 'politics by proxy' and makes it necessary to ascertain the undesirable links of that small number of NGOs which were different from the vast body of genuine forums working for philanthropy and public service.

India is presently facing a situation where our adversaries next door are focusing on fishing in our troubled waters and exploiting the internal differences here of creed, region and ideology.

Our domestic scene had always been vulnerable to these contradictions but a conscious policy of some opposition groups, of playing the 'Minority' card for political gain, has pushed the Hindu-Muslim divide in a direction of 'separatism' that was never in evidence even when the country witnessed stray communal riots arising from local causes in the decades after Independence.

The Constitution of India did not distinguish between one citizen and another on the basis of caste, creed or gender. The democratic process here firmly established the principle of 'one man one vote' to the advancement of all.