A police conference that strengthens cooperative federalism

The three-day annual conference of DGPs and DGs of states -- the 56th such meet held at Lucknow in keeping with the policy of the Narendra Modi government of circulating this national event across India -- came at a time when the national security scenario called for commitment to one nation, placing national security above party politics and working for the spread of people's awareness of India's national interests.

These national imperatives were always important for a country that was declared as a Union of States wedded to principles of Federalism -- as defined in the Constitution -- but they have come under sharper focus now.

Both the Centre and the states are governed by political executives elected on the basis of 'one man, one vote' with the latter enjoying a great deal of autonomy of governance of which responsibility of maintenance of law and order was a fundamental plank. However, the Constitution left no one in doubt that the onus of safeguarding national security fell squarely on the Centre and that the states were to fully complement the Union's endeavours in this regard.

The annual DGPs' conference stands out for its singular contribution to keeping India united in a situation of external and internal threats to its security, particularly in the backdrop of the rising trend of 'open warfare' getting replaced by 'covert' offensives that were designed not only to damage our strategic assets, but also subvert the faith of the citizens in our democratic system.

This, therefore, is also the time to remind people their Constitutional duties pertaining to preservation of national security, including respect for the symbols of nation such as the flag and the anthem.

The conference has traditionally been convened and chaired by the Director of Intelligence Bureau as a professional exercise at the national level, and it has evoked enthusiastic response from all states irrespective of the political complexion of their respective governments.

In keeping with the requirements of the time, the conference is now attended by heads of paramilitary forces and central police organisations as well. The conference offers a rare opportunity to the participants to go through the entire spectrum of external and internal threats facing India, through a series of presentations made by senior officers of IB, including interactive sessions that allow for field experience of the states to enrich the deliberations.

At Lucknow, the subjects discussed reportedly included -- apart from counter-terrorism, Left Wing Extremism and drugs trade -- many emerging matters with security implications such as border area management, coastal security, cyber crime, data governance and prison reform.

This shows how the national security scenario was never static and demanded strategic updates. Responding to the contemporary scenario, the conference discussed the issues of development and security of villages along the borders, particularly in Punjab and J&K where Pakistan had attempted to drop arms, ammunition and drugs using drones in pursuit of its 'proxy war' against India.

Home Minister Amit Shah in his inaugural address at the conference on November 19 reportedly laid emphasis on the importance of cooperation between Central and state police organisations, stating that policing should not fall prey to politicisation and that while good work should be rewarded, wrongdoers should be punished too.

The Home Minister drew attention to the misuse of social media and called for suitable action in appropriate cases. The meet reportedly recorded its recognition of the three best police stations in the country to make the point that police at the grass-roots was performing a nationally important function.

As in the past, the conference formed core groups under different DGPs to examine specific issues and come up with recommendations for suitable action.

Prime Minister Modi has upgraded the importance of this conference by taking keen interest in its proceedings and spending considerable time at the meet. This confirms the Prime Minister's known commitment to issues of India's economic development and national security.

The conference derived added importance from three new developments of our times -- emerging dimensions of 'proxy war' that had created new challenges for the internal security front, the fact that state police and paramilitary forces are the first to respond to threats to national security in many cases, and the increasing importance of coordination between the Central and state intelligence agencies.

India has been at the receiving end of cross-border terrorism that was used by Pakistan as an instrument of state policy in Kashmir and elsewhere. Pakistan has been further encouraged to intensify its 'asymmetric' war against India ever since it struck a military alliance with China.

The Sino-Pak axis is founded on a 'give and take' by which Pakistan had ceded a large chunk of territory in POK in spite of India's objections, for the establishment of CPEC by China. Following the abolition of Article 370 pertaining to special status of J&K, by Indian Parliament in August 2019, China has indulged in aggressive activity in Ladakh while Pakistan stepped up infiltration of terrorists in the valley- the two adversaries were intent on furthering plans to fish in the troubled waters of India and sponsor covert acts to destabilise this country.

In the enlarged challenge of internal security, the role of paramilitary forces in countering terror operations and the efforts of the police in handling foreign-sponsored drugs trade and acts of disruption caused by enemy agents have become extremely important.

A new dimension of the proxy war is the use of social media as an instrument of combat and the play of lobbies working in concert with governments and organisations abroad to run down the democratic content of the governance in India, notwithstanding the fact that the legitimate right of the political opposition to criticise government policies and functioning of the government machineries with regard to execution of schemes or implementation of law, remained undiminished.

Planned activity to influence political views for achieving an electoral objective through civil society fora is becoming a new kind of 'politics by proxy', and if this is done on dubious financial support, it will deserve to be taken note of.

Maintenance of internal security today is far more challenging because of this expansion of the hostile covert activity. Defence is protection against an 'open' attack and India has strong defence forces to ensure that. Security, however, is essentially the safeguarding of the nation against the 'covert' offensive of the invisible enemy that could be countered only by having timely Intelligence produced by specialised agencies trained in the tradecraft techniques like surveillance, interview under 'cover' and secret enquiries. Both human and technical channels are used by them.

We need a significant enlargement of the country's Intelligence infrastructure. India has maintained a good tradition of not granting police powers to its intelligence agencies -- Intelligence Bureau is included among Central police organisations for administrative purposes as it employs a very large number of IPS officers, but it is an intelligence organisation not an investigation body.

An intelligence agency here has its distinct ethics of working -- there is no vested interest in running an operation, a lot of freedom of decision-making is allowed to officers in the field and there is no reason for the organisation to compete with any police set up for credit.

Acceptance of anonymity by choice, a certain pride in being part of work that had national importance and full confidence in the internal process that conferred 'recognition', are the norms here. An Intelligence organisation looks opaque from outside but is quite transparent for the insiders who were able to see the professional objectivity with which it functioned all the time.

For enhancing the ambit of Intelligence in these difficult times the country needs strengthening of the Police on that front -from the state to the district and Police Station levels. This could be done by earmarking personnel for Intelligence and giving them intensive training before inducting them into that function. IB could help in the formulation of the course content for this training - to an extent this was already happening at the state level. The Lucknow conference of DGPs has done well to deliberate on various facets of Police reforms.

The highlight of the meet was the presence of the Prime Minister along with the Home Minister at the sessions on the second and third day, and the interactive responses the conference received from them on the presentations made on the occasion.

In his valedictory address Prime Minister, according to media, laid emphasis on in-depth analysis of all Police related incidents to develop case studies for institutional learning. Also, he called for establishing a high power Police technology mission to identify and adopt technology for future policing requirements.

Prime Minister Modi, known for his deep interest in taking the country ahead with technological advancement, has rightly drawn attention to the importance of improving policing -- a vital instrument of good governance -- through the use of appropriate technologies.