The Problems Within

Amongst the factors, which contribute to threats to internal security of a nation are: 

• Bad governance marked by incompetence, inefficiency, economic mismanagement, lack of adequateattention to economic and social development, feelings of economic and social injustice in large sections ofthe people, corruption and the insensitivity of the administration to the legitimate grievances of the peopleand the consequent absence of a well-functioning mechanism for a redressal of the grievances of the people. The feeling amongst large sections of the people that one is governed by a leadership or administration that does not care sows the seeds of alienation leading to challenges, which may be peaceful initially, but tend todegenerate to violence, to law and order and the authority of the State.
  
  
• A failure on the part of the aggrieved sections of the people to understand and acceptthat there are limits to what a leadership or administration can do to meet the grievances of the people, thateven in the best governed State there would always be unfulfilled expectations and that while it would belegitimate to continue to articulate such unfulfilled expectations, a  resort to agitational methods,particularly involving violence, could weaken the fabric of the State and the administration.
  
  
• A failure of the political leadership, the State and the administration to be sensitive tothe grievances of the minorities, whether ethnic or religious, and  to protect their lives, interests andproperty and the consequent emergence of feelings of alienation.
  
  
• A lack of moral integrity in the political leadership and administration marked bycorruption, nepotism, abuse of authority, tolerance of wrong-doings, criminalisation of politics and thefailure to enforce the law, either due to timidity or due to a nexus with the law-breakers, which weakens thecredibility of the State and the administration in the eyes of large sections of the people.  A State oradministration, which does not enjoy the respect of the governed, cannot enforce the rule of law effectively.
  
  
• The absence of statesmanship, the ascendancy of partisan political interests over nationalinterests and unprincipled and opportunistic politics, with the political parties ever willing and on thelook-out for opportunities and grievances amongst the people, even illegitimate, which they can exploitwithout consideration of the impact that such exploitation may have on the rule of law.  The politicallandscape is consequently marked by a plethora of politicians, but hardly a statesman.
  
  
• The exploitation of the grievances and the feelings of alienation of sections of thepeople by external powers for achieving their strategic objectives.
  
  
• The absence of effective national security management, whether internal or external,characterised by an unsatisfactory intelligence and physical security apparatus and  a politicalleadership, whether in the ruling circles or in the opposition, so engrossed with the politics of thepoliticians and not of statesmen, that it has neither the  time nor the inclination to attend to removingthe systemic deficiencies.
  

3. The internal security landscape has been further darkened by the appearance on the scenesince 1993 of the Pakistan-based pan-Islamic warriors, many guided and orchestrated by the State of Pakistanand its military-intelligence establishment, but an increasing number, since 1998, by the Osama bin Laden-ledInternational Islamic Front for Jehad (Crusade) against the US and Israel.  The threats from State andnon-State actors across our borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh have blurred any distinction between internaland external security.  The threats to internal security increasingly arise from external actors, whohave been able to exploit our tardiness and ineffectiveness in addressing the causes of the domestic threats .

4. If the Maoists of Nepal, who look upon the Indian State as an adversary, and the LTTE ofSri Lanka, which continues to be one of the most ruthless terrorist organisations of the world, succeed incoming to power, the impact on our internal security situation could be negative and could aggravate theproblems faced by the national security apparatus.  If bin Laden's International Islamic Front succeedsin its "Look East" policy of spreading its virus to the Muslim populations of Bangladesh, the ArakanState of Myanmar, southern Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and southern Philippines, India would finditself buffeted by pan-Islamic ill-winds blowing from the West as well as the East.  The effects of thisill-wind could be particularly felt in South India, hitherto largely unaffected by pan-Islamic ideas, becauseof the presence of a large number of Muslim migrants of Indian origin in South-East Asia and their continuingblood and mental links with their kith and kin still living in India.

5. Is there an adequate awareness in the central and state leaderships of the new dimensionsof the threats to our internal security? Do we have a carefully worked-out short, medium and long-termstrategy to deal with these threats politically, ideologically, economically, socially and systemically? Do wehave a national security apparatus capable of implementing the strategy effectively and do we have a politicalleadership in the Centre and the States, which would back, consistently and without zigging and zagging, are-invigorated national security apparatus in its efforts to implement the strategy?

6. The answers to these questions could at the best be a qualified--and not aresounding--yes and, at the worst, more negative than positive. We have a nuclear doctrine, but nocounter-insurgency  and counter-terrorism  doctrine despite the fact that India has been the victimof externally-supported insurgencies/terrorism since 1956 and no counter-proxy war doctrine despite the factthat thousands of security forces personnel and innocent civilians have died due to Pakistan's proxy war since1981 -- initially in Punjab and then in J&K.

7. Any doctrine, in order to be credible and to be able to produce enduring results, has toaddress the internal as well as external, professional as well as the political economic and social aspects ofthreats to our national security from the cancer of externally-supported insurgencies and terrorism. While the external aspects have been receiving increasing attention with significant successes as evidenced bythe recent changes in the attitude of the international community in our favour in relation toPakistan-sponsored terrorism, the equally important internal aspect of identifying and attending to thegrievances of the people falling a prey to external machinations has not received the attention it deserves. So long as this aspect is neglected, the wounds would continue to fester even if we reduce and ultimatelyeliminate the external causes of aggravation. 

( This is the text of a presentation prepared for delivery during an interaction at aBangalore-based think-tank on June 28, 2002. The writer  is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India,and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai)