INDIA NEEDS VERY EFFECTIVE INTELLIGENCE SETUPS IF IT HAS TO DEFEND ITSELF EFFECTIVELY

INDIA NEEDS VERY EFFECTIVE INTELLIGENCE SETUPS IF IT HAS TO DEFEND ITSELF EFFECTIVELY

Prof Dr Colonel K Prabhakar Rao (retired)


It is well known that one of the most important inputs for any military operation or to take effective counter measures against terrorists is the timely and effective information about the enemy. We call it as intelligence inputs. Many battles around the world have been lost due to this lacuna. Most of the nations are lethargic in this aspect and inputs are not timely and effective. India is no exception in this aspect. India is a well established democracy (In its own typical way while some call it an apology for democracy) and has exhaustive administration organizations. Yet examples of severe lapses can be quoted. One of the most important action was Kargil undeclared war. This is a classic example of intelligence failure in a highly sensitive area that resulted in great loss of lives, money, time and reputation too. It is a different matter that Pakistani intruders were forced out after prolonged operations. They were allowed to withdraw instead of annihilating them. This beleaguered nation that has displayed apathy from time to time at the hands of inefficient leaders towards the national security and well being has paid very dearly with lives of young officers and men from army and air force. Such failures are not new to Indians.
Failure to detect crossing of River Jhelum by Alexander the great and his troops in past by King Porus of Taxila cost him very dearly. He lost the battle although he had great army. Chivalry of Alexander no more exists today. The vanquished would be butchered simply by the enemy. Any thing you win has to be grabbed. One may say that these are all ancient failures. How about the recent 26/11 in which a group of militants with weapons walked into the star hotels at Bombay and created mayhem for more than 24 hours? This has happened inspite of India fighting terrorists for the last 20 years and getting battle hardened..
Failure to know and anticipate the intentions of Mir Jafar by Nawab Sirazuddaula of Bengal cost him dearly at battle of Plassey in 1757 and he lost his life and the Englishmen gained control of Bengal. It has changed history of India. Enslavement of India commenced. Failure to know about the artillery in the army of Baber ( which he used for first time in India) by the Sultan Ibrahim Lodi of Delhi cost him the battle of Panipat -I and his life in 1527. Mughals established supremacy in India. Aliya Rama raya of Vijaynagar Empire could not anticipate that Muslim generals in his army would betray him in the war at Tallikota in 1565 and it cost him his life apart from a crushing defeat at the hands of Muslim armies. Indian history is full of such failures. Yet, India has not learnt the lesson and has not read writing on the wall. We were surprised by a comparatively small neighbor. Lessons must be learnt from Israel that is surviving in the midst of blood thirsty thugs in the Middle East each waiting to annihilate the small country. This reveals that there is surely some thing wrong with this nation. Why we are always caught unawares by the enemy and cut a sorry figure? A point to ponder over indeed.

Probably India is a peace loving nation if not a coward, scared and impotent. It is surely a negligent nation in respect of national security as events have proved from time to time. Our heritage, moral values, ancient teachings, culture, teaching of dharma, ahimsa, and universal brotherhood, Buddhist teachings and the recent fad of Gandhian non violence probably has made the nation dormant and it’s marshal spirit has been sapped and dissipated. There is a saying that a sword has to be kept always sharp and trim. If it is always kept in a scabbard it is likely to catch rust and prove ineffective when needed.. As a result, this nation has been enslaved from time to time, by Hoons, Greeks, Sakas, Partthians and Kushans before Islam ventured in to this land. Finally Englishmen, Dutch, Portuguese and French dominated us. Every time, India was defeated and others ruled over this nation.
Our nation failed to foresee the danger to the country and consequently was enslaved by Muslims in 13 th century. Our past kings granted certain trade rights and even permission to build forts to the Europeans on Indian soil. Sri Ranga raya of Chadragiri of Vijaynagr empire gave permission to the European to settle at Chenna patnam ( Now Madras or Chennai).They were soon allowed to build fort Saint George. They took advantage of these grants and soon interfered in internal matters of local kingdoms. Failure to foresee dangers by such grants resulted in enslaving of India subsequently.

In modern times, Sri Jawaharlal Nehru much glorified first PM of India miserably failed to anticipate threat to India from the Chinese and rubbed shoulders with them. They down graded Indian defense forces systematically and even thought of dispensing with these large establishments. He believed that India was a peace loving nation and hence no one would attack her. It was a mirage. But when Chinese struck, he declared that Chinese would be thrown out. Alas! In fact we were thrown out from our own territory. India received a very shameful defeat the hands of Peoples liberation army. Nehru died heart broken. Yet we have not learnt the lessons. On all occasions, Pakistan surprised us with initial attacks by armor or air force. Sadly while PM Atal Bihari Bajpai was busy with the bus diplomacy with Pakistan, the enemy intruded into our areas and occupied vantage peaks. The army guys were busy gulping liquor in officer’s messes with chicken sandwiches in Srinagar division while Kargil operation was prepared by Pakistanis. What a sorry state of affairs? The top bras had no clue about the range and depth of penetration, their intentions, motives, determination, strength, morale, fire power and depth of logistics. The situation was akin to 1962 and army top brass declared that the intruders would be thrown out in a couple of days. Alas! It was not to be. It took few months not before the nation paid very dearly with precious lives of men and officers. Scores lost limbs that are now in streets unsung and un heard.

India has many agencies to gather information at central and state levels. Every state has its own intelligence net work such as IB and CID mostly for internal security. There are intelligence wings of BSF, CRPF, ITBF, Assam Rifles, Rashtriya Rifles apart from Research and analysis Wing (RAW).there is a military intelligence wings for each defense service. The agencies such as BSF, Assam rifles, Rashtriya rifles, and ITBF and CRPF, when employed at the borders concentrate on external intelligence. The defense services and RAW too concentrate on external intelligence and espionage.. In most of the cases, there is no coordination among these agencies and it is also believed that there are severe service prejudices among them and they do not share or part with the information. It is also known that civilian agencies scorn at defense agencies due to service rivalries. There is always a tussle going on between Army officers and IAS and IPS officers over rank structure, equivalence and status etc. this has been a never ending affair in India and lot of bad blood has been generated over these issues. In recent times BSF has claimed equivalence to army. In turn, the coordination suffers. Forces such as ITBF, CRPF, and BSF are controlled by Home Ministry while Defense forces come under Defense ministry. Thus lack of co ordination surely exists. In a democracy defense services occupy a back bench and IAS AND IPS services receive higher priority. This is very much resented by Defense services. More over civilian agencies gather intelligence across the border and army is at disadvantage when this information is not shared in time. More over army itself has its own internal problems and personality conflicts. This was evident when Brigade Commander and divisional commanders in Kargil sector were at logger heads. What can we expect is such situation except more of Kargils, Rajouris, Poonchs and Bramulahs in future. This was very much evident in case of failure of intelligence when terrorists struck at Bombay’s hotels.


There is surely a necessity of revamping and revitalizing these agencies with the aim of timely gathering of information and analysis and effective sharing by the concerned. There should be only central agency in civilian control to monitor the activities that facilitates sharing of intelligence from Home ministry with Defense forces. There was a move to establish Defense intelligence organization. Some of the central agencies who always try to maintain their monopoly would surely scuttle any such moves and want to maintain upper hand. No one wants to loose control even if it adversely influences national well being. The government must take effective steps by rolling some heads when necessary. Interest of the nation should be at the top than the individuals if more of Kargils and Bombay strikes are to be avoided.

JAI HIND