Need a ‘national security policy’ to safeguard country: J&K Guv
NEW DELHI: Jammu and Kashmir Governor NN Vohra on Sunday said the country urgently needs to ‘evolve and promulgate’ a ‘National Security Policy’ under which a ministry of national security affairs should be established. He also underlined the need to have a separate central service, called the ‘National Security Administrative Service’, whose cadre should man central security organisations.
He was delivering the 12th RN Kao Memorial Lecture at the headquarters of the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), the country’s external intelligence agencies. Vohra, who was a secretary in the ministries of defence and home and rose to become principal secretary to Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral, has been J&K Governor for the last nine-and-a-half years.
Arguing for a National Security Policy, Vohra said the majority of states have been unable to establish efficient intelligence agencies and maintain welltrained police forces in adequate strength and they remain peren- nially dependent on the Centre for central forces and the army for restoration of normalcy.
“There must not be any further delay in promulgating a well-considered National Security Policy, which is founded in unambiguous Union-states understanding to work together for collectively safeguarding the country’s unity and territorial integrity,” he said.
Vohra further said that there is a fundamental necessity to ensure that all security management-related departments and agencies be manned by personnel trained and equipped to handle these tasks. So the government should establish the National Security Administrative Service whose constituents should be selected on the basis of a pan-india competitive exam and they should be trained in various areas of the national security administration system.
Vohra said that appointments in home and defence ministries and other security organisations have traditionally been made from generalist cadre. Many of those deployed in important agencies do not have prior experience of managing security.
“Serious personnel related problems have been surfacing in the functioning of central intelligence agencies, particularly in the R&AW,” he said.
Vohra argued for a separate ministry of national security affairs, which should deal with issues related only to management of internal security. Currently, the home ministry deals with many other issues, including that of internal security.
He touched upon the issue of improvement in criminal justice system, saying courts should improve their disposal rates. He raised the issue of integrity of subordinate judicial services, adding, “In the past years, allegations have been raised against those who man the higher judiciary, including up to the august level of the Chief Justice of India.”