Don't Degrade The Intelligence Agencies
From time to time politicians tend to sharply subvert the
working of the nation’s Intelligence Agencies to achieve narrow political
purposes. Mr. Rajiv Gandhi, protected with crack SPG troops when Prime Minister,
with every intelligence mechanism watching out for him, was killed on the campaign
trail when out of power.
He was blown up by a human bomber from the LTTE in Sriperumbudur
near Chennai in 1991, both because of inadequate, state level police protection,
and intelligence failures. There were no Black Cats around him in Sriperumbudur
that night, and conspiracy theories aplenty about the role of LTTE sympathisers
and collusion in Tamil Nadu to this day.
The Government is once again merrily subverting the
intelligence agencies in the run up to another general election. One that
promises to be keenly fought by all contenders to bring about a change from
some very alarming conditions today.
Meanwhile, the Terrorists, Maoists, the very effective ISI
from Pakistan, The Chinese on the borders, some major international terrorist
organisations, foreign intelligence agencies with agendas, fifth columnists and
so on, are eagerly waiting for their turn in the sun.
Our Intelligence Agencies are meant to keep track of all of
them effectively and share information to thwart their inimical plans. But we
fail more often than not.
The recent bombings
in Bodh Gaya by the IM according to the National Investigating Agency (NIA) are
perhaps both a prelude and deja vu on what to expect. There was intelligence on
this bombing too, which was shared in advance with the Bihar Police, but it
happened anyway.
In India, the role of
the Intelligence Agencies, like RAW and IB, the best known external and
internal agencies amongst quite a number, is being compromised. Political
interference designed to target specific politicians such as the BJP’s soon to
be declared Prime Ministerial candidate Mr.Narendra Modi is liberally used.
The CBI is deployed in a manner that has turned it into
something of a joke, going through narrow contortions currently in the Ishrat
Jahan case. It was referred to as a “caged parrot” by none other than the
Supreme Court in another matter dubbed Coalgate saying that it, “speaks in its
master’s voice”.
The CBI is best used to keep dossiers and tabs on corruption
and scams and skulduggery of the prominent. It is used to intimidate and
undermine recalcitrant state governments and political opponents. And restive
allies alike. Both Mulayam Singh Yadav
of the SP and Mayawati of the BSP are said to be kept on a leash via the CBI.
Because of this devaluation of the CBI and its sleuths, just
one example of an institution being destroyed, other intelligence agencies of
the Government of India also tend to work in a circumspect manner rather than
proactively. They want to protect themselves in bureaucratese rather than stick
their necks out. They pass on intelligence inputs late or vaguely that are
often not acted on adequately.
This kind of interference with covert agencies concerned
with the security of the country happens in other countries too and with less
than salubrious results. The CIA has sometimes been promoted in the service of
US interests and sometimes undermined as under Democratic President Jimmy Carter.
But it needs to be understood that a secret organisation
entrusted with espionage is not very effective if one attempts to render it
transparent and responsive.
Similar things have happened to the FBI but not until the
legendary J Edgar Hoover passed away.
In Britain, it was often the Judiciary and the Courts that undermined MI6 by demanding information from intelligence officers that end up compromising their sources. But till 1994, MI6 was not even known to officially exist.
In India we play politics even with the death of policemen
like Encounter Specialist Mr. Mohan Chand Sharma killed while apprehending IM
terrorists at the infamous Batla House in New Delhi. This demoralises our Police,
Commandos, Armed Forces and Intelligence Community alike.
The UPA seems keen to
downplay Islamic terrorism and Maoism in equal measure, as it might, it is
perceived, upset vote banks that they are courting. The distortions caused by this
political bias are visited on the people invested with providing security to
the powerful and less exalted alike.
The worst part is not the creation of a Frankenstein in
flawed security apparatus that can target the high and mighty who come out of
their cocoons during election time. That might be seen as an occupational
hazard.
The worst is probably that given the competence of our
intelligence and security personnel, we can do much better if we improve the
speed of our decision- making and let professionals do their job without
interference.
Inconsistency of policy is bad enough, and India suffers
hugely from this two steps forward and one step back syndrome, but a willful
wrecking of institutions inclusive of witch-hunts against officers who are, and
have been doing their jobs to protect us, is downright cynical. Today it is an
IB Special Director Mr. Rajinder Kumar, nearing retirement. Tomorrow who else?
As Indian Express Editor- in- Chief Mr. Shekhar Gupta
pointed out recently, Punjab might have been lost without a determined policy
of degrading the Khalistani ability to wreak vengeance on the populace. He lauded
the role of the IB in the field for finding and pointing out the would-be
culprits. The secession movement in Punjab was the ISI’s biggest operation in
India. And it failed.
As did the Naxalite movement in West Bengal in the
sixties. There was no tying up those
encounters with justice bows. They were killings of the bad guys so that the good
people might live in peace. That is what Intelligence Agencies and Security
Personnel do. We should have the wisdom to leave them well enough alone to do
it, instead of trying to fix matches with hypocritical calls for common justice when it suits us.
It is no surprise that there is so much instability and
unrest in so many parts of the country today along with a truly lousy law and
order situation. The politics of the ruling UPA has become ad hoc and
desperately short- term. And surely with such an insecure leadership, the nether
elements feel free to operate boldly.
In the end, there is not much one can say to a Government at
nearly the end of its tenure. But the new Government, hopefully an NDA
Government that comes in with Mr. Narendra Modi as Prime Minister, must restore
the dignity of all our intelligence and security apparatus at the earliest.
(1,087 words)
July 9th,
2013
Gautam Mukherjee
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