In the past 45 days, India has appointed new chiefs of Navy, Army and Intelligence Bureau apart from a new Chief of Defence Staff, virtually the heart of national security establishment. There will be a new Air Chief in the next 75 days.
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While the Modi government has been able to successfully address the challenges of Maoists, north-east barring Manipur and in the Kashmir Valley after the Pahalgam massacre, a new national security challenge is emerging in Punjab yet again. With the loss of political clout of Akali Dal (Badal) and its weakening of control over Panthic forces, the created vacuum has led to fringe radical players jumping in for electoral gains in the forthcoming Punjab assembly polls next year.
Deliberate attempt is being made to rake up sordid 1980-1990 decades of Punjab’s past, when Pakistan deep state lit internal security fires in the name of Kashmir and Khalistan due to weak or ineffective governments at the Centre. Pakistan was also supported by western countries namely US and UK as a quid pro quo for the help extended by Rawalpindi for fighting Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
Even today Pakistan is continuing to support terrorism in Punjab through a self-sustaining module of hard drugs and weapon supplies through drones over the sensitive western border of India. With Pakistan now helping US in its mediation in war with Iran and ostensibly addressing the turmoil in the Middle-East, pressure is again building in Punjab with deliberate attempts being made to tarnish reputations of the Punjab Police and security forces using propaganda films using OTT platforms and social media. The human rights violations of the sordid decades are being raked up using highly inflated figures without any mention on how the security forces and the minority community were targeted by Pakistan backed extremists during the same dark period of Punjab. While religious fundamentalism is on the rise in Punjab, lack of effective governance by the ruling party in Punjab is further complicating the issue as the state chief minister derives his political power from the mercurial party chief.
The political-extremist mixture has become more volatile as trans-national gangs have replaced the terrorist modules in Punjab. The glorification of extremist elements and gangsters by folk musicians has created false role models for the youth, whose life aspirations have been reduced to a visa to Canada, UK, Norway or Germany.
Given the rapidly polarizing conditions in India’s key border state, time has come for newly appointed security chiefs to shrug off inertia in order to create better domain awareness of the threat that is coming from the terror state across the western borders. National security institutions are not government departments where file pushing is the ultimate objective with risk averse CEOs, who rely more on technical than human intelligence. Rather than rely on scraps of intelligence from powers with vested interests, the need of the hour is for the security establishment to spend to get actionable intel and expand their area of influence. While instruments of war are changing and so is the technology used by terrorists and gangsters but our institutions are still stuck in the past with heads of institutions having warped the idea that intelligence chiefs and service chiefs should have a moral compass.
With rising aspirations of India under the Modi government, the challenges to national security will only increase as no one in the world would yield space to a new super power. And all attempts will be made to nix the Indian rise both overtly and covertly, and through false narratives orchestrated over OTT platforms and social media. The only way India can face up to these rising threats is to build up pre-emption capabilities and strong deterrence. This can only be done by national security chiefs selected on merit and with a risk appetite. Not by ones, who constantly look over their shoulders for directions from the political leadership. Punjab will have the first test in the coming months and new chiefs should not fail.
