Indian laws and the Constitution are robust and fully capable of tackling each and every security challenge and there is no immediate need to have a notified National Security Policy for India. The views were expressed by experts during a group discussion at the Military Literature Festival here on Saturday on the topic 'National Security Policies in Democratic Countries'.
Sharing his thoughts during the discussion, Lt. General Surinder Singh said that for a nation as diverse as India, to not have a written policy on this aspect is like having a policy. Why should one clearly lay out its security plans and aims publicly by having an advertiser policy framework, more so in a volatile global security architecture as today's, Lt. Gen. Surinder Singh further said.
While some countries like China aim for securitisation of everything, India needs better coordination amongst all its security agencies to tackle any emergent threat in an efficient manner, he added. Our responses in a critical situation are narrowing each time despite spending millions of crores on security set up, Lt. Gen. Surinder Singh said raising the need to audit our measures and take correctives if required.
Laying out the role of Civil Services in ensuring overall defence stability of a nation, former Punjab Special Chief Secretary KBS Sidhu, IAS raised the question of whether a democratic set up like India is a hindrance to having a National Security Policy as China, Pakistan or other democratic countries have.
We need cohesion amongst our different arms of security establishment to avert the tendency of monopolising intelligence sharing, Sidhu suggested. India needs to make itself more resilient by ramping up the security infrastructure by investing more in defence, Sidhu added.
Earlier, during the discussion, Lt. Gen. Praveen Bakshi said that the muddy waters of the geo-political set up require a dynamic approach for which concerted and time bound efforts are required to be taken aggressively for India to have a safe future.