The Vice President of India, M. Venkaiah Naidu has said that we must be eternally vigilant against forces which are inimical to India and want to derail the country’s onward march. He was delivering the 4th R.V. Raju Memorial Lecture on 'National Security Challenges in 21st Century', organized by National Investigation Agency (NIA), here today. The Union Home Minister, Shri Rajnath Singh, the Minister of State for Home Affairs, Shri Hansraj Gangaram Ahir and other dignitaries were present on the occasion.The Vice President said that the national security environment in India is determined by its geographical attributes, socio-economic milieu as well as by regional and global developments. He further said that the national security challenges can be broadly categorised as internal challenges and external challenges, both of which are closely and intricately intertwined. The internal challenges include the growing radicalization in our society, separatist movements, insurgencies, communalism and Maoist violence, he added.The Vice President said that India is now the fastest growing major economy in the world and India needs to grow faster to provide basic means of livelihood and decent opportunities to all its citizens.
The need of the hour is to ensure that India remains peaceful so that the process of all round development continues unhindered, he added.The Vice President said that United Nations has from time to time adopted various resolutions to combat global terrorism in all its formats. However, despite being members of the UN some member states continue to flout these resolutions by nurturing and providing support to terrorist organizations and it is time for the global community to take note of the situation and act against such errant member states, he added.The Vice President reminded the recent investigations by the NIA in tracing and tracking the funding of the separatist groups and leaders have successfully disrupted the supply of funds to the separatist groups. He further said that this has led to a significant decrease in the incidents of terrorism as well as decline in the subversive activities being carried out by the separatists. He hoped that the NIA would continue to focus on all the aspects of financing of terrorism and effectively disrupt the channels and networks of funding to the terrorist organizations.