‘Public wants govt to either shape up or ship out’

The government has spoken of its resolve to create a Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to counter terrorist strikes. The move, however, lacks both clarity and vision. Such legislation, if enacted, is doomed to fail because it addresses only a part of the problem.

Anti-terror strategy demands that success against terror can be achieved only by a clear understanding and implementation of “ends, ways and means”.

While ‘ends’ correspond to a clear vision on what we wish to achieve. ‘ways’ corresponds to the various options of achieving the desired state. ‘Means’ are the resources available to execute the strategic anti-terror design.

The desired ‘end’ state for India is the total elimination of terror. The best ‘way’ to do so is by creating a new federal ministry that can handle all the fallouts of a terror strike. The ‘means’ are the combat forces required not just for neutralising terrorists, but also for their command and control, communications, technical support and operational logistics. ‘Means’ also involves the support that troops need on the connected tasks of evacuation, medical-aid, dead body management, fire-fighting and media briefings among other things.

It is clear to all that the government has displayed neither vision nor resolve in tackling the issues. The public demands the government either ‘shapes up or ships out’.

Post the 9/11 terror strike, the USA had created a Department of Homeland Defence (DHS) to combat disaster in any form, including terror.

Notwithstanding the criticism, the DHS has served the USA well — there has been no terror strike in the country since 2001. This is an example that we can and we must emulate.

President Bush announced the establishment of the Office of Homeland Security to coordinate “homeland security” efforts on October 8, 2001, within 30 days of the strike. The DHS was formally established on November 25, 2002. The FBI and CIA were, however, not part of the DHS.

The DHS also has a key called the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). After FEMA’s creation, the Congress continued to expand FEMA’s authority to include coordination of counter terrorism operations.

Following the September 11, 2001 attack, FEMA had, within minutes after the first hijacked plane slammed into the World Trade Centre, activated 25 of the 28 Urban Search and Rescue teams in response to the attack.

Post Mumbai, therefore, separating terror from MHA and giving it to a new ministry, the Ministry of Homeland Security (MHS), with the sole responsibility of handling terror in all its manifestations is inescapable. The key US attribute worth replication is to treat terror holistically; not just by creating an FIA, but, more prudently, by accepting the nexus between terror and disaster and, accordingly, building our structures and responses to take them on.

A call can be taken on whether the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) would be subsumed into the Anti-terror Ministry or constitutionally respond to a FEMA equivalent coordination agency such as the FIA.

What is clear is that the identified “Ends, Ways and Means” to combat the terror-disaster conundrum must come together.

The staff recruited should comprise selected serving and retired personnel of the civil services, intelligence, defence services and paramilitary personnel with access to world-class training and infrastructure.

It goes without saying that all constituents, especially the combat troops, must be well-paid and compensated to make sure that the MHS delivers.