The test launch of Agni V has been greeted by some breathless
reporting, considering missile technology is old hat and the putative
target, China, is way ahead of India in launch vehicle, as well as
nuclear weapons technology.
Nevertheless, the successful test
adds to the incremental steps that India has been taking to enhance its
strategic deterrent capabilities. This has been marked earlier this
year by the commencement of the sea trials of the Arihant, nuclear
propelled ballistic missile firing submarine.
In a different
category come the Indian successes against domestic terrorism in the
form of the arrest, first, of Abdul Karim ‘Tunda’ an ace-bomber who
operated in the late 1990s in the region around Delhi and second, of
Yasin Bhatkal, a key Indian Mujahideen operative who has played a
significant role in the bombing campaigns across India since the mid-
2000s.
Both the Agni and the terrorism successes hide more
than they reveal. In the case of the terrorists, we have not heard too
much about the role played by our external intelligence agency R&AW
in ferreting out the terrorists and ensuring their arrest. Reports show
that today’s terrorists are quite savvy and resort to all manner of
techniques and methods to evade electronic snooping. The only way to get
them is through the old-fashioned way — using human intelligence. This
is also the toughest and most tedious method, but, as veteran
intelligence officers will tell you, also the best.
Likewise,
the Agni test does not reveal the sterling role played by the Indian
Space Research Organisation in the success of the Agni programme. Key
technologies that have gone into the Agni series of missiles were first
mastered by ISRO, principal among these being the ability to make solid
propellant engines and accompanying it, the flex-nozzle technology
enabling the missile to pitch and yaw. If the ISRO designed SLV 3 formed
the second stage of the very first Agni, it was an ISRO scientist who
designed the second stage for the Agni II, which is the key missile in
the Indian arsenal.
As for Agni V, it needs to be noted that its
diameter is the same as that of the segment developed for the ISRO’s
Polar Space Launch Vehicle (PSLV), the workhorse of our space programme.
What the two developments do indicate is that the country does have
deep resources in the area of defence and security. The issue is to
harness them effectively. The big problem that we often face is that of
the silo mentality. Our government departments and organisations insist
on working in silos and would prefer to reinvent the wheel, rather than
accept that another department may be able to provide the solution to
their problem.
Contemporary security challenges require
institutions and organisations to work together, just as modern science
often depends on teamwork instead of the outpouring of individual
geniuses. But getting people to work together in India is a major
challenge. Perhaps the greatest challenge comes with regard to our
national security. A broad definition of national security will involve
almost every aspect of our lives — trade, commerce, natural resources,
policing, governance, military matters, foreign affairs and so on.
Though it is rare for countries to coordinate all of them, some like
China do manage it and have benefited enormously from it. In India, we
have been importing large numbers of passenger jets, but have never
managed to leverage our purchases to establish a domestic civil aviation
industry. The Chinese, on the other hand, invited foreign railways
technology to set up projects in their country and within a decade they
had imbibed the technology and emerged as a major player in developing
fast railway networks.
They are now doing the same in other
areas that interest them — civil aviation, renewable energy, military
aviation and so on. Most of the Chinese advances in science and
technology owe themselves to Project 863, named after the year (1986)
and the month March (3) in which top Chinese scientists wrote a letter
to supreme leader Deng Xiaoping, calling for major investments in a
range of areas from biotechnology to robotics — to ensure that China
would emerge as a major force in research and development. Through the
programme, the government has pumped billions of dollars into labs and
universities and enterprises, on projects ranging from cloning to
renewable energy. It is through this programme that China has become the
world leader in manufacturing solar panels as well as wind turbines.
The Chinese apply this principle of command-driven management to
national security as well. At the top of the decision-making pyramid in
everything related to national security sits the Standing Committee of
the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party, and associated with it,
the Central Military Commission. What these bodies decide is final and
the task of pushing the decisions on the rank and file rests on the
shoulders of the ubiquitous Communist Party members.
Of
course, a country like India cannot replicate this structure. But
surely, our Union Cabinet, or our state Cabinets and governments can do a
better job of managing things than they have done. Disunity and
incoherence at the top inevitably trickles down to the system below and
that is what has made the national security system of the country
largely dysfunctional, despite episodic achievements like the launch of
the Agni V or the arrests of top terrorists. Mid Day September 17, 2013
Monday, September 30, 2013
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment