New Delhi: Calling the vulnerability of India’s international borders one of the challenges in the path of the country’s future economic prosperity, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval Friday pitched the idea of integrating the Central Police Organisations (CPOs) to ensure that different forces achieve “interoperability” to bring about “homogeneity” in their actions.
Discussing the idea, Doval explored the possibility of mobilising the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), which now has the mandate to maintain law and order in states, for anti-naxal operations along the border at times and in places where the Border Security Force (BSF) has the mandate of functioning. Similarly, he explored if the BSF could, at times, be used to deal with challenges to internal security.
Saying that other sectors are seeing this kind of integration, he said CPOs could achieve it because of similar training, equipment and command structures. He, however, prefixed a caveat, saying he was “speaking as an IPS officer and not as an NSA of India.”
Delivering the annual Rustamji Memorial Lecture, held Friday in memory of the first Director General of the Border Security Force, K.F. Rustamji, on the occasion of the BSF’s 21st Investiture Ceremony, Doval said India’s economic growth would have been more rapid and smooth had it not faced adversarial positions on the northern and western borders.
“The weight of border vulnerability was always on internal security — in terms of terrorism, radical ideas, and thoughts that come, drug trafficking, arms smuggling, human trafficking, organised crimes. You name, and we find that. Because of adversarial relations, we find it difficult to manage these situations, or it has become a liability for our internal security,” NSA Doval said during his nearly half-an-hour lecture.
Further emphasising the importance of border security, NSA Doval said that while defining the limit of a nation’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, it is also essential for maintaining internal security. “Unless our borders are secure, our internal security is not under control,” he said.
Moreover, he said the BSF also plays a significant role in maintaining the socio-political structure of India. “We now have got a large number of Rohingyas coming or the people from Arakan area or other areas coming. They have got an impact on us. At certain times, it can lead to religious issues and hence could lead to socio-political implications,” he said.
NSA Doval further said one effective way to improve border security is to befriend people living in villages along the border. “Chanakya used to say that you can’t protect a border if the people are hostile to you,” he said.
He said that while the government has focused on developing border infrastructure, specific methods and challenges require more research.
“There are different strokes for different folks. That requires research, study, and involvement of senior officers who should be going to different borders and physically walking along the border to understand the terrain and required infrastructure developments,” he said.
“The ministry from Delhi can only give a specific and macro planning — generic doctrines can be given — but successful implementation can happen only after a study conducted at the micro level from the border itself,” NSA Doval further said.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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