Friday, October 16, 2009

NSC of India conceived 10 years ago- is it potent or impotent?

India’s NSC as currently structured and constituted reflects all the traditional shortcomings of the last 50 years, which have been repeated both in this paper and elsewhere ad nauseum. The Kargil crisis the IC-814 hijacking and the escalation of proxy war in J & K all highlight that ‘ad-hocism’ and centralisation of all security decision making in the hands of civil bureaucrats and more specifically in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) ill-serve India’s national security decision making processes.

India’s NSC needs to be constituted and structured in a manner which facilitates serious deliberation of strategic threats and problems in an independent and objective manner on a whole time basis. Civil bureaucrats doubling up in NSC without strategic culture, exposure or thought cannot provide the sinews of the NSC. This should be left to the military hierarchy, strategic think tanks and a NSC Secretariat composed of professional, whole time strategic and intelligence analysts, even incorporated in a consultancy basis for specific projects.

Lastly, the historical background of our national security processes in the last 50 years mandate that NSC should be legislatively institutionalised as a constitutional body so that there is a continuum in national security decisions. National Security Directives should bear the signature of the incumbent Prime Minister so that accountability is assured.

INDIA’S NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL – A CRITICAL REVIEW by Dr. Subash Kapila- 10 years ago

Poser for Readers
Who is the Chairman of India's National Security Council?
  • President of India
  • Prime Minister of India
  • Defence Minister of India
  • Home Minister of India

    The Chinese threat is real and the dragon is likely to strike at will. Our defences forces and Military should be directed by NSC...do we have the requisite mechanism in operation to tackle our neighbours in the proxy wars, eliminate terrorists, defeat local conflicts erupting along the disputed McMohan line? War on terror- is really focusing attention on eliminating terror financing (hawala, smuggling, money laundering) emanating from our Nation which should be primarily under the purview of NSC!
    • Posted by on
    Labels: , , ,

    No comments:

    Post a Comment

    Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

    Disclaimer

    The contents posted on these Blogs are personal reflections of the Bloggers and do not reflect the views of the "Report My Signal- Blog" Team.
    Neither the "Report my Signal -Blogs" nor the individual authors of any material on these Blogs accept responsibility for any loss or damage caused (including through negligence), which anyone may directly or indirectly suffer arising out of use of or reliance on information contained in or accessed through these Blogs.
    This is not an official Blog site. This forum is run by team of ex- Corps of Signals, Indian Army, Veterans for social networking of Indian Defence Veterans. It is not affiliated to or officially recognized by the MoD or the AHQ, Director General of Signals or Government/ State.
    The Report My Signal Forum will endeavor to edit/ delete any material which is considered offensive, undesirable and or impinging on national security. The Blog Team is very conscious of potentially questionable content. However, where a content is posted and between posting and removal from the blog in such cases, the act does not reflect either the condoning or endorsing of said material by the Team.
    Blog Moderator: Lt Col James Kanagaraj (Retd)

    Resources