S.K. Sood

India is a large country with myriad problems, both internal and external, which impinge upon the security of our country. We have long borders with our neighbours, two of whom, China and Pakistan, continue to remain hostile. The borders along other neighbouring countries, too, present several security challenges.

Internally, the country continues to battle many insurgencies. Starting from the Nagaland problem immediately after Independence, India had to face the Naxal menace in Seventies and Eighties followed by militancy in Punjab in the Eighties and Nineties. We are presently battling the Separatist movement in Jammu and Kashmir besides large-scale Maoist insurgency in central India.

Since defence forces cannot be utilised in every situation as it hampers their training and preparation for their original role, India is therefore required to maintain large security forces to tackle internal security challenges as well as peace-time border management.

Out of the five central armed forces under ministry of home affairs (MHA), three, the Border Security Force (BSF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) are border guarding forces with additional responsibility of assisting the defence forces during hostilities. The other two namely, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) are responsible for assisting the civil administration in internal security and industrial security respectively. Two other armed forces namely Assam Rifles (AR) and Rashtriya Rifles (RR), although funded by MHA, operate under command ministry of defence with tasks of border guarding and internal security respectively.

Even though, the CRPF is designated specialised force for assisting the civil administration in internal security tasks, India being a very large country with diverse problems, other forces are frequently deployed for such tasks.

The Central Paramilitary Forces (CPMF), therefore, play a very important role in the security matrix of India. The border guarding forces, especially the BSF and ITBP, are the first line of defence of India with a specific war time role of assisting army in the war efforts. The BSF had performed admirably during the war in 1971. Subsequently, during the Kargil conflict, it was the area manned by the BSF which could not be infiltrated by Pakistanis as the BSF did not vacate the FDLs. In order to ensure their readiness for war time role, these forces practice it periodically during war games and exercises.

Recent developments in eastern Ladakh where the ITBP was deployed and the downing of an armed drone in Hiranagar sector in Jammu indicate that the adversary keeps adopting newer methods and therefore the CPMF must keep evolving in order to retain their edge. The evolution has to take into account the prevalent operational environment. All other aspects, viz equipment, training policies, personnel management etc have to be in consonance with the evolving operational philosophy. Therefore, the most important reform that these forces need to initiate is to create a perspective planning cell tasked to study future trends and make recommendations. None of these forces presently have such a setup hence, the reforms that take place are personality oriented rather than policy driven.

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A mentally mobile leadership with deep insights into the operational environment and ethos will be the on