Only a streamlined fool-proof security apparatus can foil covert attacks

Those entrusted with the responsibility of preserving the sovereignty of the State cannot achieve it without first safeguarding national security from both internal and external forces.

The foreign policy of a country mandates that the incumbent political executive is kept abreast with the country’s security scenario in the volatile geopolitical horizon.

Towards the administration must make a conscious effort to ensure that the citizens are aware of their duties towards the state, particularly their contribution to national security and supporting the regime’s efforts to neutralise ‘covert’ attacks on their own soil. After all, security does not come cheap, which is why a suitable budget allocation is made for this critical category, despite financial constraints.

Moreover, in today’s context, the role of a National Security Advisor (NSA) endowed with a proven Intelligence background has become the prime determinant of international relations because his interaction with his overseas counterparts provides the best inputs on geopolitical developments and their implications, one way or the other.

Intelligence liaison among friendly countries has in fact acquired a new-found importance in determining the strategic framework of bilateral and multi-lateral relations.

It is a good augury that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s security and economic policies reflected in the G20 Delhi Declaration demonstrated the soundness of India’s strategy.

Three fundamental principles of security management in present times are that is must function under a top man; security is an integral concept since it safeguards the three assets of the organisation - material, manpower and protected information and ensure that ‘knowledge-based decision making’ applies unequivocally to security aspects.

A leader of today’s organisation particularly in the strategic sector has to fully understand the nuances of security just as at the national level the Prime Minister - as the chief political executive of the country - was fully seized of the issues of national security.

The security essentially is protection against covert attacks on the assets of the organisation. Terrorism causes degradation of strategic and industrial assets of the target and weakens it. Hence a team of professionally trained hands has to be set up in the organisation to collate and analyse security-related inputs.

In a sensitive enterprise, vigilance function is built into security since any sign of vulnerability like addiction, greed for money and promiscuity can make him an easy target.

Just as the national security set-up deals with sabotage, subversion and espionage - corresponding respectively to the enemy’s attack on physical assets, manpower and protected information - a sensitive enterprise has to conduct a risk assessment for drawing up an appropriate and comprehensive security framework and infrastructure to provide for physical security, personnel security and information security.

The qualities needed in security management must exist in the leadership that runs the entire organisation.

A security professional observes what he sees, absorbs what he observes and discreetly translates it into policy formulation. This makes for informed decision-making.

In security management, delegation of authority is necessitated by the fact that the person closer to the ground could be required to take a quick decision about further action and this is a feature a successful leader brings to bear on his or her management style.

All organisations - whether a corporate or a public sector entity - embrace human activity and therefore their leaders have to have a good idea of human psyche and behaviour, which is something intrinsic to successful security management.

In the sphere of security, the individual is at the centre of all productivity and in business management also, this is considered something pivotal to a successful functioning including the allocation of work to teams.

Again, in the sphere of security, bureaucratic hierarchy is minimally in play because the senior can task the junior persons but he or she has to remain available for any guidance that the team might seek in a difficult situation.

Finally, in a security set-up there is no confusion about credit sharing and the leader of any successful organisation would also see to it that there was no favouritism about granting recognition for good performance. In view of all of this, it is established that experience of security enriches the leadership of the enterprise in terms of the traits that should be emulated and that like in security, inputs on the environment within and outside of the organisation improve the decision-making process.

The shift from open warfare to ‘proxy wars’ has made our strategic establishments more vulnerable to ‘covert’ attacks of the enemy.

The adversary knows that today ‘national security was inseparable from economic security’ and that hitting the economic targets would weaken the opponent.

There is an urgent need for all such entities to have a strong security-cum-vigilance set-up manned by professionally trained staff with direct access to the top man of the enterprise. It is important to impart a certain amount of security education to All India and Central Civil Services officers during their foundational courses so that they are oriented to the future responsibility of managing the nation’s strategic establishments and handling the work of sensitive ministries.

It is particularly important that people holding classified information in organisations of strategic significance should be under a constant vigil. In the Indian context, attempts at honey trap are not unknown.

Further, in order to safeguard democracy every citizen had a contribution to make towards preserving the country’s sovereignty, integrity and security. The concept of national security can be set in motion right at the school curriculum level.

The mainstreaming of security function is an appropriate response to the fact that we live in an unsafe world and at the level of the nation, the organisation and even the family, the required awareness of the dormant risks in the environment around would always be of great help.

Modi and his team have addressed security concerns related to both external threats and internal dangers at the national level quite well. What perhaps needs to happen is that all sensitive organisations should spruce up their security and internal vigil against possible enemy activity.

The covert operations of the adversary ultimately result in action closer to the ground and that is why for dealing with terrorism, illicit drug trade and even surreptitious arms smuggling police and Intelligence watch at local levels has become imperative, as also to unearthing terror plots and ‘strikes’ by the enemy.

Liaison of Central organisations with state and district police has become a must for safeguarding national security in a situation where external threats were translating into covert operations of the enemy on our own soil.

Our agencies are working with total awareness of this new trend that has been further strengthened by the use of cyberspace and social media as covert instruments of proxy war.

Leadership at the national level is now greatly dependent on those driving security initiatives because there were new geopolitical developments on the one hand and the operational collaboration between the two hostile neighbours of India -China and Pakistan - was becoming stronger, on the other.