Intel failure and Security Lapse: is that the only story?

26/11/2008 the day when every security and intelligence agency in India failed to do its work. There are tens of agencies in our country but none could stop what should have been stopped days before.
Here is a look at what our intel agencies do and how they are influenced by the attrocities of the system.

Research and Analysis Wing(RAW): It is India's external intellligence agency. Its primary function is collection of external intelligence, counter-terrorism and covert operations. In addition, it is also responsible for obtaining and analyzing information about foreign governments, corporations, and persons in order to advise Indian foreign policymakers

Intelligence Bureau(IB): It is India's internal ntelligence agency. Shrouded in secrecy, the IB is used to garner intelligence from within India and also execute counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism tasks.In addition to domestic intelligence responsibilities, the IB is particularly tasked with intelligence collection in border areas.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI): It is India's premier investigating agency, responsible for a wide variety of criminal and national security matters. The CBI is the premier investigating police agency in India. It is an elite force playing a major role in preservation of values in public life and in ensuring the health of the national economy. It is also the nodal police agency in India which coordinates investigation on behalf of Interpol Member countries. The CBI has to investigate major crimes in the country having interstate and international ramifications. It is also involved in collection of criminal intelligence pertaining to three of its main areas of operation, viz., Anti-Corruption, Economic Crimes and Special Crimes.

All ruling parties misuse the Intelligence agencies for political intelligence, for mere political survival and for stymieing political opposition. Political horse trading is an integral part of our fledgling democracy. Institutions like IB are also used for these purposes. Such misuses take place because agencies like IB, R&AW, CBI etc are not regulated by any Act of the Parliament. These important tools of governance are not accountable to anyone except their controlling ministries, the Home and the Prime Minister. Agencies like the CIA, FBI and MI5 are regulated by Acts of the highest lawmaking bodies. It is high time for India to make these agencies accountable and provide them with protective armours of the Law. Democracy without Accountability is worse than military dictatorship.

The Intelligence agencies suffers from several drawbacks: lack of ground spread, manpower, resource crunch and hesitant support from political system of the country. In a scale of 100, threat to internal security has increased by 80%. Compared to that these agencies's resource bases have increased only by 10%. How can a country fight jihadist thrusts from in and outside without the political government equipping it with required levels of resources? Lack of political will, for whatever reasons it might be, is at the root of weakness of our intelligence mechanism. There has been a lack of coordination among these agencies and the time delay in transferring these sensitive info from one organisation to another is lethal in itself.

Various intel specifics were given hours and days before the attack by various agencies in and outside the country. But they were not listened to and was not taken seriously. This resulted in lack of seriousness in the working of these agencies Since all the them are controlled by the home minnistry and without their approval no action is taken, this clearly shows the need to regulate laws to ensure safety of not only the country but also the people living in and outside the country. A central investigation agency is required which is accoutnable to noone except the Parliament. In addtion they should have all the authority over any other intel or internal security agency in India. Certain measures should be taken to ensure that all the info supplied by all intel inside and outside the country directly reaches and each and every inputs should be scrutinised, however they can be prioritized if it demands.
They should not be influenced by any political or economic influx or outrage. Also proper weaponry should be provided to them to tackle emergency and covert operations.