National Security
Defence Expenditure:
Trends in left wing extremism:
Trends in terrorist violence in Jammu and Kashmir:
Broad Policy –
- Our policy is zero tolerance towards terrorism from whatever source it originates
- To ensure that all delays in the modernisation of the armed forces are eliminated and that all funds earmarked for modernisation are spent fully at the earliest.
- More specialist battalions will be raised and positioned in key locations across the country.
- To set up a new Department of Ex-Servicemen's Welfare in the Ministry of Defence. The long-pending issue of one-rank, one-pension will be re-examined.
- To maintain a credible nuclear weapons programme while at the same time it will evolve demonstrable and verifiable confidence-building measures with its nuclear neighbours.
- It will take a leadership role in promoting universal, nuclear disarmament and working for a nuclear weapons-free world.
- To ensure that strictest possible action without fear or favour, against all those individuals and organisations who spread social discord, disturb social amity and propagate religious bigotry and communal hatred. The law of the land will be enforced effectively.
- Citizenship is a right and a matter of pride. With the huge IT expertise available in our country, it is possible to provide every Indian with a unique identity card after the publication of the national population register in the year 2011.
- Pledge to make India’s defence forces technology-enabled and equipped with modern weapons, aircraft, ships and delivery systems to repel any threat from land, sea or air.
- Recognizing their special concerns, a new and separate department of ex-servicemen’s welfare was established in 2004 by the Congress-led UPA Government. Ex-servicemen constitute a large cadre of dedicated and trained persons. We will utilize them extensively in crucial nation-building tasks.
- Indian National Congress and the UPA recognizes the imperative of police reforms
- The police force will be better provisioned especially in the matter of housing and education facilities; the police force will be made more representative of the diversity our population; and police recruitment will be made more effective and training professionalized to confront new and emerging threats
- Accountability of the police force will be institutionalized.
Reforms & Targeted Actions –
- The emergence of ideology linked terrorism, the spread of small arms and light weapons(SALW), the proliferation of WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) and globalization of its economy are some of the factors which link India’s security directly with the extended neighbourhood
- Technology advances in telecommunications and other areas have provided potent force multipliers to boost the capabilities and impact of terrorist activities
- India has strengthened its participation in multilateral institutions and deepened its strategic partnerships with various countries so as to effectively contribute, as a responsible stakeholder, to regional and global peace and stability.
- The UPA Government has placed special emphasis on enhancing defence preparedness and upgrading the capabilities of the Armed Forces to meet security challenges.
- A new Defence Production Policy was drawn up, with the objective of achieving self reliance in defence production.
- FDI upto 26 % is permitted in Defence sector, subject to FIPB approval.
- The Government’s approach is to deal with left wing extremism in a holistic manner, in the areas of security, development, ensuring rights of local communities, good governance and public perception.
- State governments deal with various issues related to the activities of left wing extremists in States. The Central government supplements their efforts through a wide range of schemes.
Exhibits –
Internal Security
• The Internal Security situation in the country showed distinct signs of improvement over the previous years.
• The level of infiltration from across the borders and the resultant terrorist activities in the valley of Kashmir showed a significant decline
• Terrorism in the hinterland has been by and large under control since the Mumbai terror attacks
• Implementation of the Integrated Action Plan in 78 Left Wing Extremist (LWE) affected districts for providing public infrastructure and services in select tribal and backward districts most of which are affected by left wing extremism.
• In order to give a push to development works in areas affected by left wing extremism, Government approved formation of 10 new Specialized India ReserveBattalions and conversion of 3 previously sanctioned India Reserve Battalions into specialized India Reserve Battalions.
• These Battalions have both security as well as engineering formations to remove any hindrance in executing developmental works.
• The communal situation remained by and large under control despite some isolated incidents
• The Government signed a tripartite agreement for setting up of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration.
Exhibits –
Internal Security
• UPA envisioned the National Investigation Agency - With Branch Offices At Guwahati, Hyderabad, Lucknow , Kochi and Mumbai
• Issues related to peace process in Assam were discussed with ULFA leaders
• The gradual improvement in the security situation in North-East and bonding with the people of that area is important for emotional integration in the long term security interests of the country.
• Numerous insurgent groups of North East (Manipur and Nagaland) have signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of India
• Land for setting up of the headquarters of the National Intelligence Grid in Delhi has already been acquired.
• NATGRID will in due course link various databases in the country for constructing actionable intelligence to combat terrorism and internal security threats.
• More than Rs 418 crore have been released to the States and UTs under the project called the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems which is being implemented for creating a comprehensive and integrated system for enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of policing at all levels, especially at the police station level
• The total length of the Indo-Bangladesh border sanctioned to been fenced is 3,436.59 km.; out of which 2760.12 km. of fencing has so far been completed as of March 2012.
• Only 101 km of border length approximately in West Bengal along Indo-Bangladesh border, where fencing work is pending due to land acquisition issues
• Until March 2012- 3,605 km of border roads and 1,292 km of floodlighting have been completed along the Indo-Bangladesh border.
• 31 additional border out posts have been added on the Indo-Bangladesh and the Indo-Pakistan borders during the current year taking the total number of outposts to 1,442
• More than Rs. 990 crore has been allocated for Border Area Development Plan for the year 2012-13, The BADP covers 358 blocks of 96 border districts of 17 States located along the international Land Border.
• To facilitate trans-border movement of goods and people, 13 integrated checkposts are being set up at designated entry points on the international land borders of the country, at an estimated cost of Rs 635 crore.
• In the first phase, construction of 7 integrated check-posts has been taken up, viz., Attari (India-Pakistan), Raxaul (India- Nepal), Jogbani (India-Nepal), Dawki (India-Bangladesh), Akhaura (India-Bangladesh), Moreh (India-Myanmar) and Petrapole (India-Bangladesh).
• The Integrated Check Post at Attari, Punjab, on the Indo-Pakistan Border has been completed while the Integrated Check Posts at Raxaul and Jogbani, both in Bihar along the Indo-Nepal Border, are under construction
• In 2012, Rs. 1,200 crore has been alloted for the modernisation and development of the National Security Guard
• 5 NSG Regional Hubs Established in Manesar, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai and Mumbai. One at Gandhinagar approved.
Reforms & Targeted Actions –
External Defence
• The emergence of ideology linked terrorism, the spread of small arms and light weapons(SALW), the proliferation of WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) and globalisation of its economy are some of the factors which link India’s security directly with the extended neighbourhood
• Technology advances in telecommunications and other areas have provided potent force multipliers to boost the capabilities and impact of terrorist activities
• India has strengthened its participation in multilateral institutions and deepened its strategic partnerships with various countries so as to effectively contribute, as a responsible stakeholder, to regional and global peace and stability.
• The UPA Government has placed special emphasis on enhancing defence preparedness and upgrading the capabilities of the Armed Forces to meet security challenges.
• A new Defence Production Policy was drawn up, with the objective of achieving self reliance in defence production.
• FDI upto 26 % is permitted in Defence sector, subject to FIPB approval.
• The UPA Government has taken several steps to promote the modernization of our armed forces and ensure defence preparedness of the country.
• The successful launch of Agni-III Missile and the induction of BrahMos Missile System into our armed forces constitute major milestones in the upgrade of our defence technology.
• DRDO successfully test fired the indigenously developed Agni-V Long Range Ballistic Missile with a range of 5,000 km and the capability to carry various forms of payloads, taking India into a select club of countries in the world
• Akash surface to air missile system capable of multi-target handling, is also being inducted.
• The raising of two mountain divisions to safeguard the North-Eastern borders and setting up of the second Officers Training Academy (OTA) at Gaya, Bihar
• The modernisation of Rashtriya Rifles underway to improve the counter insurgency grid in Jammu & Kashmir.
• The ordnance factories and Defence Public Sector Undertakings maintained their trend of increased production and enhanced investments in Research and Development every year
• Two regiments of the indigenous Main Battle Tank (MBT) – Arjun were operationalised by the Army.
• The indigenously designed and developed Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) – Tejas, which is the smallest light weight, multi-role combat aircraft in the world, was cleared for operations by the Air Force.
•The Air Force has also successfully inducted the Airborne Warning and Control System(AWACS).
Exhibits –
External Defence
• Major milestones included launch of Agni-IV missile and the surface-to-surface tactical battlefield missile Prithvi-II
• To provide the desired offensive capabilities to Mechanised Infantry, the Army is well on its way to undertake an ambitious programme to modernise the entire fleet of BMPs.
• The first fully modified aircraft for the indigenously developed Indian Airborne Early Warning and Control System took to the skies in December 2011.
• Procurement of a modern, state of the art Anti Tank Guided Missile is also under process.
• The First indigenously designed and built stealth frigate, INS Shivalik was commissioned. India’s first pollution control vessel ‘Samudra Prahari’ was also commissioned.
• The nuclear-powered attack submarine INS Chakra was inducted into the Indian Navy on April 4, 2012.
• 48 ships and submarines presently on order, 44 are being built in Indian shipyards.
• In consonance with the Indian Navy’s commitment towards antipiracy operations in the Gulf of Aden, the IN has deployed one warship continuously in the area from October, 2008.
• An integrated and synergetic approach has been adopted byinvolving the Indian Navy, Coast Guard,Intelligence, Custom, State Marine Police, and other central and state agencies in meeting this challenge.
•Following reassessment of vulnerabilities, Phase-II of the Coastal Security Scheme has been launched with an outlay Rs 1579 crore
• It aims to add another 131 Coastal Police Stations, 60 Jetties, 180 Patrolling Boats, 10 large Vessels for A&N Islands along with other policing infrastructure in coastal States/UT’s
• From January 2009 there has been an increase of 60-80% in the deployment of 39 IN ships and 100% increase in IN aircraft deployment for coastal security tasking
• The second indigenously designed and built stealth frigate of the Shivalik class, INS Satpura was commissioned on August 20, 2011.
• The first fully modified aircraft for the indigenously developed Indian Airborne Early Warning and Control System took to the skies in December 2011.
• The nuclear-powered attack submarine INS Chakra was inducted into the Indian Navy on April 4, 2012.
• The country’s First Armed Forces Tribunal was established in 2009 for the adjudication of complaints and disputes regarding service matters
2 fsayed thanks for replay,
your points
1)first safety
dear safety in what senrs ,
external- china is doing picnic at LAC ,attack on indian embassy in afg ,
epic handling of J & K clash and behading soldier ( i think its 1st time in indian history , correct me if i am wrong )
internal
26/11 Mumbai, bomb blast in hyd and north east i think assam.
2) economic policy
1st term of UPA - yes they did welll
why - because some good policy, stable and positive global envir.
2nd term of UPA - disaster
why - global slwodown.. yes i know its not UPA fault..
but what happened to our economist PM .. does he could not able minimise the impact on india with proactive or even reactive policy.. i dont think so.
we can back to 1991 postion , HIgh CAD, fiscal deficit, Rs.Depreciation, political vacuum ..
Even person like Ratan Tata made negative remark which i never seen his long career about governance.
3)education
Dear Please read ASER 2013 report . you will get REAL picture.
i know fising problem is not short term work
but UPA had 10 yrs then cam with RTE in 2010 ..
if they were really interested they could have come in 1st term.. so that we can see some positive impact after stabling system in 3-4 yrs
Higher education.
Except IIT, IIM , IISc we dont have anything to boost on.
Even IIT made for technical education and research but most we are getting managers , economist, writers so on .(nothing wrong in it, but that was not ideal goal)
Still higher education policy and bill in limbo.
giving new IIT/IIM igs goood.
but WE HAVE FACULTY EMERGENCY IN CURRENT IITS
as their is not enough faculty.
what govt did to address that..
4)justice
please specify what you mean exactly.
5)young and energetic prime minister
ok .what is definition of young.
it means MMS is young from 2000 on wards tlll 2013 -2014
now he is old.
UPA, NDA and Terrorism
Posted by Aditya Kuvalekar on June 27, 2011
In November 2008, the atmosphere towards assembly elections in a few states was heating up. One of the most prominent of those was Delhi. Vegetable rates had hit the sky. Common man was helpless, dejected and disgusted with all that he had to face. Not that the situation has changed much since then. But probably it was slightly new then. BJP painted the streets of Delhi with Advani’s posters and slogans of
“Mehengi Padi Congress”. It also attempted to “expose” Congress’ failure in curbing terrorism. And 26/11 happened. It was almost like the icing on the cake for the BJP. I had called a Congress party worker friend of mine and he simply laughed in despair at the situation. Even he had given up his ever-optimism post-26/11. Just two months before that, there was a series of bomb-blasts in Delhi. Just like the previous times, an inquiry was initiated and no considerable success was achieved. Perpetrators were not even identified, let alone brought to justice. Just like the old-times, it all looked hopeless.
Shiela Dixit was facing a seemingly uphill task. In spite of all her achievements, she represented a party that is perceived to be weak on terrorism. Congress, the opposition has been claiming since the pre-historic times, caters to the minorities through vote-bank politics resulting in marginalizing the majority. Apparently, Congress’ agenda to go soft on Islamic terrorism is one of the major reasons why we have had to face rampant terrorist attacks in the recent times. The atmosphere had heated up. Post 26/11 wave of protests and patriotism had traveled to Delhi. As usual, Manmohan Singh was silent. The picture was grim for the Congress. But, against all odds, Shiela’s agenda of development thrived. She earned a landslide victory in Delhi. BJP was wiped out. Rajnath Singh was clenching his fists yet again.
That brings me to the question, how much of truth is there in any of the allegations of the opposition against Congress’ performance in counter-terrorism? In spite of my distaste for the G family, I thought it worthwhile to explore the trend of civilian casualties in terrorist attacks over the years.
Here’s a graph of casualties against year. The graph has the total number of casualties (civilian and security forces), the casualties due to left-wing extremism (which was not much in vogue till as late as 2002-03),civilian casualties with and without the left-wing extremism. Detailed data for the “welfarist” activities of the Naxalites isn’t easily available to the best of my knowledge. However,
this place gives a good break-up of how different franchise of Naxals have carried out their activities during 2002-09.
Source:
South Asia Terrorism Portal
Please note that I have simply multiplied the current figures for year 2011 by two to get the forecast for total number if casualties in 2011. Obviously, all the caveats apply.
Incredible! Isn’t it? In spite of having Shivraj Patil in charge for 2004-08, UPA actually has lesser number of civilian casualties than NDA.
This was completely unexpected for me. If you look at the civilian casualties, which have a rather steady downward trend, it’s obvious to see that the number has mostly remained constant since 2004 and has declined a bit post 2009. The latter, according to me, is Chidambaram’s success. More so because there’s a sudden surge in the left-wing menace during that period and yet the downward trend has established itself to the point that there’s almost a convergence between total civilian casualties and civilian casualties due to left-wing extremism. In fact, whatever that comes from this point onwards essentially indicates that any place where UPA’s shortcomings are exposed in combating terrorism, it belongs to Mr.Shivraj Patil’s tenure and as soon as Chidambaram era kicks in, UPA seems to be doing just as well or probably better.
Significantly, the 1999-2004 era shows that NDA’s performance in curbing terrorism is not as splendid as they often advertise. The best year for NDA was 2002, ironically. The number of civilian casualties in 2002 is 1174 to be precise. The worst year for UPA-II is 2006 and the number of civilian casualties in 2006 is 1118!! The average number of casualties during the NDA regime is also much higher than the UPA regime. I do not wish to doubt the noble intentions of the Rath-yatra king Advani in implementing the harshest measures to ensure that civilians are safe. But somehow, what took place on ground is not highly consistent with his intentions.
One of the most evident failures of UPA-I is in their inability in bringing down the rate of casualties after taking over in 2004. Post the downward trend that existed for some time, the number has largely remained constant from 2004-08 and that’s a long period in office to implement programmes and to achieve desired results. But as I said before, as soon as Mr.Chidambaram arrives, everything seems to be falling in place. After all, who installed the incompetent Shivraj Patil and persisted with him for so long is anybody’s guess.
In the same spirit, NDA deserves credit for bringing the number down from 2000 to 2004. I would ignore the increase in number from 1999 to 2000 because it was the first year in office for a full-strength NDA.
Another point where NDA clearly outscores UPA is the number of terrorists that each regime eradicated. Here’s a graph of terrorist casualties, year-wise. The peak in 2000 must be due to Kargil.
There is one problem though with using the number of terrorists killed as a measure of success. Governments, with the help of police, have had the tendency to label some innocents as terrorists, especially so in Kashmir. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to find this out from the data but a conspicuous rise in the number of terrorists killed during the NDA tenure might have something more to it.
Lastly, another very interesting or rather most interesting point according to me would be the number of Islamic terrorist incidents and deaths and injuries due to them in India (JnK and NE are excluded). Logic behind this is two-fold. External threats means largely Islamic terrorism. Secondly, many-a-times, groups like SIMI carry out small-scale bomb-blasts which do not cause as many deaths but injure many. The primary motive behind those blasts is to instill fear and terror amongst citizens. Therefore, we would have a reasonably good picture of how the two governments have fared by comparing these indicators. I have presented two pictures below and they are self-explanatory.
Source:
South Asia Terrorism Portal
Although the number of civilian casualties (based on the first graph) during UPA’s tenure is lesser, the frequency of incidents and injuries afflicted is far too high during UPA-I. NDA did a far better job. But then again, once you incorporate the Shivraj Patil factor I don’t think there’s much to choose.
The more I write about it, the more I am convinced that this should be a nice, clean and neat research paper by an econometrician and a blog cannot do much justice to this problem, like many other problems. However, at least the birds eye view gives the impression that BJP’s claims of Congress being ineffective in tackling terrorism or BJP being super-efficient in curbing the terrorist activities seem to be largely accurate as far as UPA-I is concerned. But as soon as we move to Chidambaram as the HM, UPA actually fares better than NDA. The places where NDA scores above UPA are -
1) Frequency of incidents
2) Number of terrorists killed.
Important as these factors are, UPA too scores above NDA at some places. Some of them are
1) Number of civilian casualties has never been above the 2003 figure. It has largely maintained its downward trend in spite of the surge in left-wing extremism.
2) Post Chidambaram, the frequency of incidents has reduced significantly, and as of today, it’s the lowest since 1994.
Much of Congress’ failures can be attributed to a single man – Shivraj Patil. In fact, post his appointment the sharp increase in the frequency of terrorist incidents and also a moderate increase in the civilian casualties could possibly have a lot darker story to it. I would like to assume the contrary but the graphs are staring at me in the face and telling only one thing. For the time being, I would simply label it as gross incompetence. Unsurprisingly though, he was a man chosen by
the lady.
BJP, like always, simply targeted Congress at the wrong point. As an auto-wallah once told me in Delhi, before the election,
“Yeh log kya baat kar rahe hai, inke waqt kya mehengai nahi badhi kya?” Inflation is probably not the issues where BJP separates itself from Congress. It’s ironic that an auto-driver knows this but not the Jaitleys and the Advanis.
Congress is very very lucky to have BJP in the opposition. It is we, the people, that are unfortunate.
