Keyword: coordination

Addressing issues of serious national concern often requires specific measures that may be considered unnecessary at other times. The dangerous drift that has marked the Manmohan Singh government’s handling of J&K and Manipur certainly required to be arrested. The reported move to make Special National Security Adviser to the Prime Minister, M.K. Narayanan, the chief coordinator of the government’s attempts to arrest this drift should therefore be welcomed. Over the last few weeks, the seeming breakdown of the dialogue process in J&K and continuing civil strife in Manipur have been cause for great concern since both phenomena hold the potential for undermining national unity. The factors that have caused these developments may be varied, but what is particularly worrisome is the lack of a coordinated response to them from the various arms of government in terms of a cogent policy. And this is where a national security advisor, with the authority of the PMO to back him, can play a pivotal role.

Such arrangements are not new. Trouble spots like J&K, for instance, require the attention of not just the home ministry but the ministries of defence, external affairs and finance. The NDA government had at one point, when there was a surge in violence in the Valley, toyed with the idea of bringing Kashmir affairs under the prime minister. When Atal Bihari Vajpayee took over as prime minister, J&K affairs was in fact being handled by the PMO — an arrangement instituted by Narasimha Rao when he was prime minister. Senior retired officials like the former cabinet secretary, B.G. Deshmukh, have also argued in favour of shifting Kashmir affairs from the home ministry to the PMO precisely because it was not a problem that a single ministry alone could handle.

There is also the question as to what the exact role of a national security adviser should be. In the American system, such an official has a distinct and important enabling function in government affairs and men like Henry Kissinger have filled the slot. In the Indian context, the concept is still a fairly new one but it would appear that the complexities of governance demand the liaising talents of such an individual. But this should not mean that the home ministry is allowed to be run in an incompetent fashion. The present home ministry appears to have run out of both ideas and steam if we are to go by the fact that Manipur has witnessed two months of serious unrest. The prime minister should therefore also set affairs at Home in order.