Secure Borders

R.C. Sharma

“The first requirement in the country was external and internal security. You cannot have any plan unless there is security,” said independent India’s first home minister, Sardar Patel.

The statement in itself is a manifestation that external and internal security management needs a coordinated approach and coordinated response from stakeholders responsible for national security. India has a vast boundary line of 15,106.7 kilometres. The hugeness of the borders makes border security the most important domain of national security. With hostile neighbours and a highly volatile security scenario, border guarding needs methodologies to address dynamic border security challenges seamlessly. Border security needs to be effective and impregnable, to tackle conventional and unconventional threats, which border guards face on a daily basis.

Strong border security is directly linked to effective border guarding which strengthens border defence and upholds the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the nation. Weak border security has multidimensional ramifications on national security. Therefore, the border guarding domain needs to be truly professional with both conventional and unconventional methodologies and dynamic innovations. To be dynamic it needs to innovate new methods in border guarding and wipe off the shelf those which have become outdated, outlived utility, curb the initiative of commanders and are a hurdle in professional border guarding. There also needs to be total coordination between border management and border defence domains.

Border management domain covers peacetime border guarding whereas border defence is the preparations to take on adversaries in case of any misadventure or conflict and brings into focus the role of defence forces. Both domains are complementary to each other. Dilution or degradation of one affects the other and is reflected in the dilution of field proficiency. There is also a need for greater synergy among different subsidiary/support domains of border guarding to make border guarding truly professional. It is only possible once a balance is maintained, administrative and field aspects affecting border guarding attract high priority from the state, keeping in mind hostile adversaries all around, ready to exploit chinks and gaps/aberrations in border guarding.

The Israel-Hamas conflict has brought back focus on border security, border management and border defence. It was a total breach of the national borders of Israel by Hamas through land, air and sea by degrading and rendering ineffective Israel’s technological superiority in terms of weaponry, technical and human inte