SPEAKING
FREELY Baptism of fire for India's home
minister By Bibhu Prasad
Routray
Speaking Freely is an Asia
Times Online feature that allows guest writers to
have their say. Please
click hereif you are interested in
contributing.
Less than 24 hours
after taking over as India's Minister for Home
Affairs, Sushil Kumar Sambhajirao Shinde last
Thursday had to address media regarding the four
low-intensity blasts that had rocked Pune a day
earlier.
Given that his last exposure to
the law and order apparatus ended in 1971, when he
resigned as a police sub-inspector to join
politics, it perhaps wasn't surprising that Shinde
has since been
accused of seeming out of
his depth. However, this doesn't answer the
questions of what type of a home minister will he
make and what will his outlook be on internal
security?
There is scant information
available to throw any light on the thinking of
India's new home minister on issues such as
terrorism, insurgency or left-wing extremism. This
is perhaps to do with the fact that prior to
becoming minister of power, his most recent role,
Shinde had not held a constitutional post for very
long.
As Andhra Pradesh governor he lasted
less than 15 months and as chief minister of the
state of Maharashtra, less than two years, between
2003 and 2004. Since 2006, he has served as
minister of power in New Delhi.
On the
basis of his performance in past roles, Shinde may
not have been the best candidate for this
high-profile job. During his 21 months as
Maharashtra chief minister, the state capital
Mumbai witnessed five explosions carried out by
terrorists within seven months.
His
performance as minister of power was also marred
by events since. His elevation to the home
ministry came the day India experienced its
worst-ever electricity blackout, affecting 20
states and 600 million people. A day earlier, on
July 30, another blackout had shutdown northern
Indian states including New Delhi for several
hours. Not surprisingly, within a day of his
appointment, the media were already questioning
the rationale behind the decision, terming the
appointment as a reward for his proximity to Sonia
Gandhi, the chairperson of the Congress party.
Shinde's immediate tasks include a range
of internal security challenges in the context of
its gigantic project of to erect a counter-terror
architecture, a task left unfinished by P
Chidambaram. Shinde has been compared, albeit
unfairly, with Chidambaram's predecessor Shivraj
Patil, another politician from Maharashtra.
The 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack ended
Patil's lacklustre tenure as home minister. Prior
to that, Patil had been criticized for being too
soft on tackling terror, especially with regard to
left-wing extremism. He not only had the
proclivity to term the Maoist extremists as
"estranged brothers and sisters", but repeatedly
played down the threat, even at a time when Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh had referred to the
insurgency as the country's "single biggest
internal security challenge".
Chidambaram's tenure was a mixed bag.
Terrorism related incidents decreased
significantly in all of India's conflict theatres
- Jammu & Kashmir, the northeast, left-wing
extremism affected states and also attacks
targeting urban centers.
He was
instrumental in activating the Multi-Agency Centre
system for coordinating intelligence inputs from
the field, setting up the National Investigation
Agency, monitoring the police modernization
programmes, overseeing the raising of new
battalions of central police forces and also
leading a less ambiguous war on left-wing
extremism.
Besides, Chidambaram brought
abut radical changes in the way the ministry
functioned. He ensured mandatory arrival time for
the ministry employees by installing smart card
swiping machines at the building, much to the
angst of employees used to lots of leeway and
freedom regarding office hours. He also made the
ministry's achievements transparent by introducing
a system of presenting monthly report cards and
also ensuring timely release of annual reports.
Under his patronage, chief ministers of
different states met annually every year in New
Delhi to take stock of the internal security
situation. In contrast to his predecessor,
Chidambaram was much more willing to share and
discuss his outlook with the media, a tendency
which was termed far too open for a closely
guarded bureaucracy-led ministry and brought him
some brickbats as well.
However, his gains
were interspersed with several failures. His pet
project, the National Intelligence Grid remained
mired in bureaucratic and inter-ministerial
tangles. His objective of setting up a National
Counter Terrorism Centre, never came to fruition
amid objections from several state governments
fearing encroachment on the principles of
federalism. His multi-theater war on left-wing
extremism, termed Operation Green Hunt, achieved
little and in spite of the setbacks, the Maoists
continued to remains a serious internal security
threat across several states. Ill-motivated and
inadequately briefed security forces were recently
involved in a failed encounter resulting in the
deaths of civilians.
It is in the backdrop
of such successes and failures that Shinde's
performance would be judged. Pune serves as a
point of reckoning for him that the position of
the home minister is not a job for the frail
hearted. He will be keenly watched on the
parameters of activism, transparency and more
importantly, on his ability to deliver on the
unfinished agenda.
Speaking Freely is
an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest
writers to have their say.Please
click hereif you are interested in
contributing. Articles submitted for this section
allow our readers to express their opinions and do
not necessarily meet the same editorial standards
of Asia Times Online's regular contributors.
Bibhu Prasad Routray is a
Singapore-based security analyst. He can be
contacted at bibhuroutray@gmail.com and on
followed on Twitter @BibhuRoutray.
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