An IPS officer who went on to head the Research & Analysis Wing and Delhi Gymkhana Club, Amar Singh Dullat, talks to Aditi Phadnis about the proposed changes in India’s intelligence gathering structure
Home Minister P Chidambaram has outlined an ambitious new structure that will knit together intelligence gathering agencies to form a National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC). How implementable is the proposal?
Why should it not be implementable? The home minister is not some tuppenny-ha’penny guy — he is a man who knows his onions. If he has said NCTC will be set up by the end of 2010, he knows what he’s talking about.
He has said — in the same speech where he proposed the restructuring — the state governments need to be proactive. Their police forces are abysmally inadequate. Assuming that actionable intelligence comes from state governments, don’t you think this could be a problem?
The crux of what he has said pertains to a counter-terrorism centre. I don’t see any problem. Last year, when the National Intelligence Agency was set up, similar doubts were voiced. What is much more important is what NIA is doing. There could be a re-look at the role of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). But the agency which will looks at terror attacks will be NCTC.
India has nine intelligence agencies. Don’t you think it is a bit too much that we should be looking at a tenth, without evaluating what the other nine have done?
Earlier, internal security challenges were different and diverse. Today, the most important internal security challenge is terrorism. All agencies have their roles. The only question in my mind is, whether NCTC would report to the Intelligence Bureau (IB) or to another outside agency; or will it report directly to the home minister? But, in principle, it is a great idea. It will improve coordination, as all agencies would be represented on it. What I understand from his speech is that NCTC will not just be about intelligence and analysis — which the Multi-Agency Centre (MAC) also does — but operations would also be part of it.
So NCTC will supersede the current functions of several organisations. The appendix is a vestigial organ of the human body. Its removal does not affect functioning. Similarly, if there are intelligence organisations that have become irrelevant because of the nature of new security challenges, they should be wound up before another one is created.
NCTC will supersede nothing. It is going to be the main central body to look at terrorism. IB does it, R&AW does it, the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) does it. NCTC will be a central body that will draw on the resources of all these. MAC will be given core responsibility for analysing trends.
But isn’t that what the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) does... analysing trends?
NSCS is responsible for long-term strategic analysis. NCTC will become a crucial tier of command and control. Many countries have come to realise that in the face of the new nature of terror threats, you need a specialised body. The Americans set up one long time ago. A counter terrorism centre in the Federal Bureau of investigation (FBI) has been there for a long time. The Central Intelligence Agency is represented on it. Similarly, in our country, R&AW and IB will form the core, NTRO will get drawn in it and this will result in better coordination.
NTRO was set up in the wake of the Kargil war. It was meant to be a top-signal intelligence set up. If it had done its job, it would have intercepted marine signals and 26/11 might have been prevented.
I would rather not go into what NTRO did or did not know. I don’t know how much it is doing, what capacities it has. There will be other attacks, let us be quite clear. Rather than go into why it happened, it is better to equip ourselves to prevent it from happening again. Scotland Yard has already warned of a Mumbai-like attack in London. We need to have a set-up to prevent other such breaches. NCTC is a great idea.
There has been an outcry against visa rules that the home ministry had announced last month. It sent guidelines — which bar any foreigner on tourist visa from returning to India within two months of leaving the country — to all Indian missions and consulates. Now, in the face of protests from the US and UK, this has been revised slightly, but it continues to be a problem and could have a significant business impact…
Visas are not granted by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) — it looks only at immigration issues. Visas are granted by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
That’s not what MEA says. It says it is the home ministry that formulates and administers visa rules...
Well, what you’re saying is, MEA is passing the buck to MHA.
And an NCTC by the end of the 2010? So quickly?
I think it is feasible. What the home minister said was that the US had created a similar mechanism within 36 months of 9/11, but it had to be set up in India within 12 months, as India could not afford to wait for 36 months. He is a man known to do what he says. So, I think you will see NCTC come if he says it will.
