NEW DELHI: The hard US response to terror stands out in contrast to India’s weak-kneed response. In the US, terrorists have been put in category of ‘cold- blooded murderers’ and therefore need to be crushed with an iron fist. To achieve this, the US set up the ambitious Central Intelligence Centre (CIC) to supervise all Terrorist Threat Centres connected to 70 fusion centres spread all over the country. Thanks to this infrastructure, the CIC gets real-time actionable intelligence 24x7 from the ground level. They also created a new infrastructure to keep track of terrorist organizations outside the country.
Strengthening counter-intelligence requires changes both at the ideation and technological level. Post 26/11, the Indian government resorted to half-hearted measures; it borrowed American ideas like setting up a NATGRID (National Intelligence Grid), NCTC (National Counter Terrorism Centre) and NIA (National Investigation Agency) on the lines of FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation). While NATGRID is yet to be operational, the NCTC remains a pipe dream. The NIA had been set-up, but with a limited mandate, resources and infrastructures. S D Pradhan, former Deputy NSA (National Security Advisor) and ex-Chairman of Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) says, “Until the NATGRID and NCTC is not connected to police station levels, it will not work effectively.”
In India there is no coordinated effort to gather intelligence. It is done at different levels by different organisations. For example, the Army, Navy and Air Force have their own intelligence units. Most paramilitary forces engaged in anti-terror operations, like BSF (Border Security Force) and CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) have their own. State police intelligence focus on local crime and political intelligence. None of them work in tandem; for example, a former intelligence operative speaks of an informant in Kashmir collecting money from different agencies for the same information. Pradhan argues, “In our security and intelligence system, we have only created a system to collect information. We still don’t have a system to analyse the information and turn it into actionable leads.”
The IB (Intelligence Bureau), RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) and NTRO (National Technical Research Organisation) which monitors border areas by satellite do not make proactive efforts to share intel. In most cases, in name of sharing information/ intelligence, they pass on half- truths, which doesn’t result into actionable intelligence. Without the availability of ‘actionable intelligence’, security forces have no means to detect or destroy terror cells or modules. For example, recently RAW passed on information to the J&K police on largescale cross border infiltration by Pakistan-based terrorists. Alarmed by the numbers given, the police and intelligence agencies investigated. They found that the count was inflated by over 80-90 per cent. “It is a wastage of resources as we have to do the same job, which RAW could have done, if only credible information was given. This is reason there is mistrust, ” says a senior J&K intelligence official. The distrust between J&K police and central intelligence is even wider. Since both function under elected governments, in case a different political party heads the central government, they work at cross-purposes.
To resolve these issues, in the aftermath of 26/11, the Home Ministry strengthened the MAC (Multi-Agency Centre) at the Central level to coordinate intelligence inputs from states. However there are huge limitations since both heavily depend on local state police intelligence units to collate information. “Frankly speaking the MAC is working on outdated data and technologies. It needs to be upgraded,” says Pradhan.
Even though the comparison between the US and India is mostly academic because of vast differences in the thinking of the political leadership, popular responses, capabilities, resources, planning and execution. However one thing is common: the source of terror targeting the two countries is the same. The epicentre of attacks emanates from Af-Pak.