Internal and External Security: Do we have a National Strategy?

Here are some media highlights that illuminate our National Strategy Spectrum

Should Army be used to tame Naxalism and Maoism?
Prime Minister and Cabinet Committee on Security, while taking the final call on the ‘larger mandate’ sought by the Home Minister, should deeply ponder and ask two critical questions before ordering militarization of Dandakaranya forests and Army marching over tribal territory. One is whether it would not signify collective and complete collapse of civil governance? And the second, will not the world opinion justifiably equate India with Pakistan, which is considered a ‘failed state’? Do we really need this dual shame?
Writer is a former Army and IAS officer
Read the detailed analysis:
Army against Maoists- Pros and Cons by M.G.Devasahayam

NDTV: Army to tackle Naxals?
Latest News: Will the Cabinet send in the Army to tackle Naxals?

Indian Army not meant to fight own citizens
The government faces its gravest internal security problem in recent times with the Maoists or Naxalites executing a series of brazen attacks against security personnel and civilians in the last two months. The incidents have given fresh impetus to the debate on whether the Indian Army should be deployed in countering the Maoist threat.
Lieutenant General D B Shekatkar, PVSM, AVSM, VSM a distinguished soldier and commander with a vast experience in combating insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast, feels the deployment of the army in combating the Maoists would be a wrong step.
Deploying Army against Naxals would be a wrong step

Army not for Policing own citizens
Want to pass on Government's incompetence to the army? Army should take a considered view only on the advisory role. Otherwise when things go wrong it will be very easy to fire a colonel or dismiss a major. Dealing with Naxals is not the army's job, it will be extremely bad for the country to get the army involved in this mess. This is a politically created problem. The solution needs to be political, backed by the police and judicial system. Prosecute the people involved and stop this thing from spreading. No one has even heard of any arrests or punishment for perpetration of crimes in the Naxal/ Maoist affected areas.

Obama has gone further than Bush on India
If India worries that it is being treated as a mere regional power, the US is willing to discuss global issues, even the Middle East, with India. As for the permanent membership of the UN Security Council, the US is willing to consider India's claim. No further commitment can be given since the US is not sure what course the inter-governmental negotiations will take in New York.
The Obama Platter: Obama has gone further than Bush on India

A new approach for India in Afghanistan
India’s stakes in Afghanistan are multi-faceted and India’s policies there will affect the way other countries perceive India”, says Raja Karthikeya, one of the lead authors of the report
A new approach for India in Afghanistan

Breadth Of US Talks Is Sign Of Progress
US policy toward militarised Pakistan is still one of solicitousness and is likely to remain so. And yet, both secretary of state Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama sought to reassure external affairs minister S.M. Krishna, who led the dialogue for India, that the US did not see ties with India only in the Pakistan and Afghanistan context, and indeed it was made clear that the Indian and US perspective on Afghanistan had moved a lot closer and included helping build a democratic and sovereign Afghanistan “without outside interference”.
Breadth Of US Talks Is Sign Of Progress

The world yearns for a New Pakistan
Pakistan of the 1971 vintage is becoming an increasing threat to the homeland security of many nations of the world- in the West as well as the East, in the Ummah as well as in the non-Islamic world. One has to work for a reduced Pakistan to make this threat manageable and ultimately eliminate it.
Wanted: A New Pakistan By B. Raman

Lot of hype Obama style: Anderson not addressed still elusive
Joint Statement issued after the conclusion of U.S. - India Strategic Dialogue