Experts divided on Chidambaram's move to overhaul security

As implications of Home Minister P Chidambaram’s announcement that India’s internal security would be overhauled, beginning with the creation of a new National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) sank in, the intelligence community was divided on how effective the overhaul — and NCTC itself — would be.

Reacting to these developments, several former directors of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) told Business Standard that few home ministers had applied their mind to the country’s security structure. So, Chidambaram needs to be complimented for his decision to overhaul the country’s internal security. But many warned of structural and organisational loopholes in the system and said the home minister was touching a raw nerve.

For instance, they pointed out, the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) was set up as a top signals intelligence outfit in the aftermath of the 1999 Kargil war following recommendations of the Kargil Review Committee. However, because it impinged on the turf of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and the Aviation Research Centre (ARC), it was not allowed to function. It was denied the facility of intelligence analysis because of the ongoing turf battle and given outmoded equipment, including cameras and an ageing Gulfstream jet, intelligence sources said.

Former RAW officer RSN Singh said it was headed by a scientist from the DRDO and despite having the competence to perform, it was being undermined.

Conscious that turf battles would break out once the overhaul plan was rolled out, Chidambaram spelt out the plan at his lecture on Thursday: intelligence agencies under the ministries of defence and finance would continue to remain with the respective ministry but their representatives would have to be deputed mandatorily to NCTC.

But officers in the intelligence community said there were some vital questions such as whom would NCTC report to.

Top government sources said the first director of the new organisation was likely to be Nehchal Sandhu, currently the number two in IB.

The new counter-terrorism agency will be the ‘super structure’ over the Multi Agency Centre (MAC), which was set up in the aftermath of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack after which Chidambaram took over as the home minister.

MAC was set up by former IB director Ajit Doval. The home ministry has commissioned a study on how different countries, including the UK and Russia, are overhauling their intelligence gathering systems after the 9/11 terror attacks on the US.But the central issue in this connection is who will run NCTC — the IB chief or the home minister?

This is not all. Officers said multiplicity of agencies doing the same job could result in no one doing the job.