Domestic Threats to Internal Security

Internal security issues in the country can broadly be categorized as follows:

1. Terrorism in the hinterland of the country.
2. Left Wing Extremism in certain areas.
3. Cross-Border terrorism in Jammu & Kashmir.
4. Insurgency in the North Eastern States.

During 2018-19, the internal security situation in the country remained under control. But, the Central Government remained committed to curb the funding of terrorism and antinational activities through various agencies. It is also to be noted that there is apprehensions of threat from the naxal attack in coming times because they are in a dormant state since long.

(a) Naxalism & Left-wing Extremism (LWE)

• Left Wing Extremism (LWE) is widely recognised as one of the most serious security threats in post-independence India. Apart from that, it is also a politico-socio-economic challenge where the Union Home Minister expressed confidence over eliminating naxalism in the coming three-five years and asked Maoists to join the mainstream by surrendering under the rehabilitation policy for them.
• Recently a special scheme for 35 most affected LWE districts namely Special Central Assistance (SCA) has been approved by Government of India for development of these areas.

(b) Militancy in the North Eastern States

North East India is the only expanse in South Asia which is geographically and strategically encircled by Nepal, China, Bhutan, Myanmar and Bangladesh. It is connected to the Indian hinterland by a narrow piece of land, namely the ‘Siliguri Corridor’ in West Bengal.

The region which consisted of only one state Assam and two Union territories Tripura and Manipur in the 1950s now comprises seven states known as “The Seven Sisters”. The Seven Sisters unfortunately do not have the best of relations due to mutually conflicting interests.

• The NE states account for 7.9% of the nation’s geographical area but only 3.8% of the national population. Close to 70% of this population resides in its largest state, Assam and the Brahmaputra Valley while the rest is in the other six states.
• This region has over 200 ethnic groups with their own language, dialects and socio-cultural identities.

Present Status of Insurgency in North – East (NE) Region

• The security situation in the North Eastern States, which remained complex for quite some time because of diverse demands of ethnic groups and various militant outfits, improved substantially in 2018-19.

• Significantly, overall fatalities (71) recorded in the Northeast in 2018 were the lowest since 1992. At peak, the Northeast registered 1,696 fatalities (946 civilians, 151 SF personnel and 599 militants) in 2000.
• Civilian fatalities declined for the fourth consecutive year and stood at 18, in 2018, the lowest in this category since 1992. The previous low of 34 civilian fatalities was recorded in 2017.At peak, the Northeast recorded 946 civilian fatalities in 2000.
• Though the security forces managed to maintain a positive kill ratio in 2018 as well, a trend well-established since 2000, the ratio declined from 1:4.46 in 2017 to 1:2.53 in 2018.
• The forces, has however, arrested 605 insurgents in 2018 in addition to 726 insurgents in 2017 (data till April 11, 2019).

(c) Terrorism

• The United Kingdom Terrorism Act, 2000, defines Terrorism as the ‘use of or a threat of action’ designed to influence the Government or to intimidate the public for the purpose of advancing a political, religious or ideological cause.
• Terrorism in India began with the state sponsorship of terrorism in Kashmir by Pakistan to settle scores with India in the context of losing three wars it fought with India as well as to avenge the loss of Bangladesh to Pakistan. However, with the Babri Masjid demolition and the consequent communal riots, terrorism began to expand which included Mumbai bomb blasts in 1993.
• Terrorism in India has become a home-grown phenomenon. Mumbai bomb blasts in 1993, Coimbatore bomb blasts in 1998, Delhi bomb blasts in 2005, Varanasi bomb blasts in 2006, Malegaon bomb blasts in 2006, Hyderabad bomb blasts in 2007 and Mumbai terror attack in 2008, recent attack on Uri, Pathankot, Gurudaspur are few of the examples of the terror attacks in India.

(d) Organised Gangs

• India has organized crime syndicates like the mafia gangs of Mumbai whose sole aim is to amass wealth by spreading terror posing a threat to internal security.
• The Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act of 1999 (MCOCA) defines organized crime as any continuing unlawful activity by an individual, singly or jointly, either as a member of an organised crime syndicate or on behalf of such syndicate, by use of violence or threat of violence or intimidation or coercion, or other unlawful means, with the objective of gaining pecuniary benefits, or gaining undue economic or other advantage for himself or any other person or promoting insurgency.
• These gangs spread not only terror and panic among the people through contract killings, extortions kidnapping for ransom but also involve themselves in drug smuggling, gun running, money laundering and occasionally providing logistic support to the terrorists who pose a grave danger to peace and internal security in India.

(e) Communal Problem

• ‘Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich’ said Napoleon Bonaparte. True it might be, but religion has become a justification for mass murders and genocides based on religious faith. Blindness for one faith has bludgeoned the humanity within man. And, man has erased the difference between human and inhuman in in the name of his religion.
• India has seen the communal riots of every kind and form beginning with the Hindu-Muslim violence in the pre-Partitioned India to Sikh-Muslim riots during partition to anti-Christian and anti-Hindu violence.