Unaccountable Natgrid Is Not A Panacea For Intelligence Failures Of India

Intelligence Failures in India are in abundance. This is not necessarily due to the fault of Intelligence Agencies of India but in majority of cases this happen due to non sharing of intelligence information among themselves in a timely manner. Overall, Intelligence Infrastructure of India is in a bad shape.

This is the reason why Projects like National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID), National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), etc assume significance. These are ambitious Projects that must be implemented in a Constitutional and Planned manner. Here lies the real problem.

While NCTC is out of picture for some more years yet NATGRID Project is based upon “Faulty Premises” and “Improper Management”.

Home Minister P. Chidambaram is pressing hard for the NATGRID Project upon the premises that it would solve all the Intelligence and Terrorism related problems. This is not true. NATGRID Project cannot and would not stop terrorist attacks and it would play almost no role in the absence of good Intelligence Gathering and Analysis Capabilities. It can supplement intelligence capabilities but never supplant the same.

Secondly, NATGRID Project of India is badly implemented. There is no sign of any sort of “Accountability and Transparency” in the dealing of NATGRID Project. Even Parliamentary Scrutiny is missing and in an environment where E-Surveillance has already gripped India, this is a bad news.

There is no “Public Information” about NATGRID Project nor are there any “Procedural Safeguards” that can prevent the possible misuse of this E-Surveillance Project. Civil Liberties are at stake as there is no protection of Human Rights in Cyberspace.

Home Minister P. Chidambaram must understand that NATGRID Project of India is “Not a Panacea” for all National Security problems in India. If at all NATGRID Project would work, it must be made more “Systematic and Planned”. Of course, it must also be “Constitutional”. Presently NATGRID Project is not meeting any of the abovementioned requirements.

Glendora Police Department Is Using Innovative Methods

Law enforcement agencies around the world are increasingly using information technology for efficient law enforcement delivery. In India as well projects like crime and criminal tracking network and systems (CCTNS) has been proposed by Home Ministry of India. Even projects like national intelligence grid (Natgrid) have been suggested by Home Ministry.

Further, a proposal to establish a system where first information reports can be filed online has also been proposed. However, till now all of these are just proposals and not even a single project has been implemented in India.

Law enforcement agencies of India are still afraid of information technology related issues like cyber law and use of computers and other technological instruments. Of course, they are catching up with the new technology but the pace is very slow.

The Glendora Police Department has launched a new feature on the Glendora Police Department's website. Now anyone who has access to a computer can see the calls that come into the police department in almost real time.

A department official said keeping the public informed about police activities serves two purposes. On one hand, he hopes it will reduce the work load for his employees. If people can see why a police helicopter is circling overhead with a few mouse clicks, they'll be less likely to flood police dispatchers with calls asking `why,' so the thinking goes.

On the other hand, it satisfies people's growing appetite for non-stop information. To that end, the department has also created its own online crime-mapping system. The official said there are also some big changes in store for the website, including an online log that shows whom the department has arrested.

And the Glendora Police Department isn't the only agency responding to that need. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has taken a huge leap into the Information Age in the past year and a half.

I hope Indian law enforcement agencies may also take a leaf out of these activities from their foreign counterparts. Although electronic delivery of services in India has been proposed yet it is far from being actual implementation. Let us see how our law enforcement agencies would perform in future.

Lack Of Privacy Laws Stalled Natgrid Project

National intelligence grid (Natgrid) has been in news from time to time. Although the intentions behind the Natgrid project are good yet it planning and management is really bad. We have been stressing that Natgrid is an essential project for robust and effective intelligence agencies and law enforcement functions in India. The only requirement is to ensure that Natgrid’s abuses can be anticipated, prevented and remedied.

There are many challenges that Natgrid must successfully meet in order to be finally established. For some strange reasons, the Home Ministry of India failed to consider these challenges. Further, experts have been suggesting that Natgrid project of India must comply with civil liberties in order to be valid and constitutional. Even this aspect has been ignored by Home Ministry. Even Home Ministry has been cautioned that Natgrid project of India may fail if it is not managed properly.

By not acting in a proper manner, Home Ministry of India has created a trouble for itself. Now the Natgrid project has been struck at the last stage of securing final approval by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is, apparently, in a dilemma whether it would be wise to give overarching power to the agencies to infringe upon individual privacy, allowing tracking of all their activities. Raghu Raman is managing the Natgrid project and his term is expiring this month after he sat idle for 18 months.

Natgrid project, if approved, would ask the telecom and internet service providers to compulsorily link up their databases with it. Even the rail and air travel, phone calls, bank accounts, credit card transactions, passport and visa records, PAN cards, land and property records, automobile ownership and driving licences and many more such data would be linked.

What Home Ministry failed to understand is that civil liberties cannot be violated at will in a blatant manner as has been suggested by it. Civil liberties are violated world over through use of technology and Natgrid project seems to be no exception to the same. Now a section of government suspects such a move as a dangerous precursor to an autocratic state having overarching power of keeping an eye on its citizens all the time and eroding their privacy.

They claim that with the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) would give unbridled powers to the Home Minister which can prove detrimental to freedom and privacy of common man. This has even put in jeopardy the very Natgrid project itself.

In the ultimate analysis the fault lies with the approach of Home Ministry. Natgrid project cannot be taken as casually and in an unplanned manner as has been done by Home Ministry. If at all the Home Ministry wishes this project to see the light of the day. It must immediately start working in a planned and systematic manner.