Our federal polity is now constantly under stress due to menace caused by Maoists inside the country and frequent aggression by the Pakistani Army across the loC in J&K. To meet this constant threat to our sovereignty and territorial integrity, an aggressive strategic policy is the need of the hour.
For past some years across Jammu-Kashmir border, the Pakistani trained terrorists and militants have let loose their ugly tentacles by their acts of terrorism, violence, killing our security personnel in the most brutal and inhuman way. The Pakistani Army and the Border Security Force (BSF) are guilty of cross border terrorism, violating International line of Control cease-fire zone on J&K border.
It is unfortunate and most tragic that recently the Pakistani BSF men in Kashmir Valley killed our two Jawans and mutilated their bodies in most inhuman and brutal manner which has shocked the whole nation.
Exactly two years back, the Pakistani soldiers killed two of our security men, beheaded them and took away their heads which created a flutter in the international sphere. This dastardly and gruesome act was condemned in strongest possible terms by the USA and the civilized nations across the world. A few days back, the terrorists kidnapped a young unarmed lieutenant of Rajputana Rifles and killed him in cold blood by firing at a close range, threw his body in Rehman area of Sophian district.
Now it has become an established fact that Pakistan is not amenable to any kind of sanity. Pakistan is encouraging cross border terrorism and different kinds of terrorist attack, killings by its security personnel / intelligence agency on J&K border frequently creating instability in the valley and paralyzing normal life of the people.
To add to this menace by Pakistani terrorists, the Naxalites and Maoists in States like Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh, Telengana and Andhra Pradesh have been attacking our police and security men by their sporadic attacks in ambush and sometimes by way of direct confrontation. Very recently, on the border of Odisha-Chhatisgarh at Sukama, the Maoists attacked the Central Reserve Police Force on patrol duty by their pre-planned conspiracy and killed at the spot 25 security personnel leaving a good number injured. Besides security men, there is also loss of life of civilians and destruction of property. So far as the enormity of the problem is concerned, as many as 12,000 civilians have lost their lives in Maoist violence and aggression over the last two decades. Of these 2,700 were Jawans of security forces and 9,300 were innocent common people.
Very recently in a high level conference at New Delhi to deal with the Maoists / Naxal menace, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said there are no shortcuts to success, underscoring the need for short term, medium-term and long-term policies at different levels. There is a need to find a solution to this problem and the strategy is available and encompassed in the word ‘SAMADHAN’.
It means S-Smart leadership, A-Aggressive strategy, M-Motivation and Training, A-Actionable Intelligence, D-Dashboard Based KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and KRAs (Key Result Areas), H-Harnessing Technology, A-Action plan for each Theater and N-No access to Financing.
Referring to the 9/11 terror attack on the World Trade Centre in the USA, the Home Minister said the US Government had taken the challenge to ensure that there was no repeat.
The 9/11 incident was not failure of intelligence but the failure of imagination, the Home Minister said.
In this backdrop, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in the conference pointed the ground realities of increasing Maoist militancy and requested the Centre for more force to fight Naxalites and to counter the extremism. After Sukama incident in Odisha-Chhatishgarh border, now focus is on better counter attack training of our security men. The Chief Minister also pleaded for replacing mobile towers in left Wing Extremist (lWE) areas of the State with regular trans-receiver units with higher band width. Due to confidence – building measures in the State, this has helped in the surrender of 203 Naxals in the past three years.
In the high level meeting, this is for the first time that the Central Government with the assistance and all logistic support of the Maoists infested States, has taken a tough attitude to deal with Maoist-Naxal attack with an iron hand. There should not be any laxity, security lapses and intelligence failure and accordingly our forces have to be instructed to meet with any eventuality. They should remain in all preparedness to launch counter offensive. The socio-economic measures for tribals always pleaded by the Maoists, is a welcome step and it should be given priority in the agenda of the Government. They should be informed, first of all, that they must shun violence and participate in dialogue and discussion to improve the life and condition of tribal population where they operate. Secondly, they should be informed that after laying down arms, they should come back from jungles to be part of the mainstream of national life.
Alternatively, if the Maoists inside the country and the terrorists from across the J&K border do not give up their belligerent attitude and war path and come to their senses, the State has to adopt a ‘tit- for- tat’ attitude.
There may not be occasions for other nations of the international community to say that ‘India is a soft State’. The need of the hour is not complacency but a time bound aggressive strategic policy. Another vital aspect worthy of mention is to chock economic resources to the Maoists in the tribal areas of Maoists infested districts.
That would paralyze and foil their planned attack, instill fear in them because without money, munitions and food which they are getting from villagers, businessmen and contractors, nothing can be done by the Maoists.
Criticized that India faces an intelligence famine even five years after the Mumbai attack, the Congress led UPA Government planned to establish the National Counter Terrorist Centre (NCTC) at a contemplated cost of Rs 3,400 crore.
The NCTC proposal was kept in cold storage as ten non-Congress States, including Odisha, opposed the move during that time saying that they were not consulted and such a move of the Centre would defeat the purpose of the State autonomy. The need of the hour is to strengthen our intelligence gathering apparatus and to fortify the Central organisations like CBI, IB, NIA and RAW.
After Mumbai terrorist attack, the National Technical Research Organization (NTRO) was strengthened. Now the NTRO is in a position to collect intelligence well in advance of any terrorist attack and can keep surveillance on the movement of terrorists / militants in the dense forest and in the inaccessible hilly regions.
To meet this constant threat to our sovereignty and territorial integrity, an aggressive strategic policy has to be evolved. Ours is a quasi-federation unlike the USA which is a full-fledged federation. In our constitutional system, we have adopted a federal structure but ‘India is federal in form but unitary in spirit’.
The founding fathers of our constitution were imbued with the idea of a strong Centre.
Therefore, even if there is State autonomy and there is distribution of powers between the Centre and the States, it is the foremost duty of the Central Government to protect the States from any acts of terrorism, aggression or militancy by counter offensive measures. In the fitness of circumstances, the present Government at the Centre should have a re-thinking regarding formation the NCTC for the sake of national security.
(The writer is ex-Special Judge, CBI, and a former Professor of law at lal Bahadur Sastri National Academy of Administration, Mussorie)