Intelligence agencies more active in political espionage: Brajesh Mishra

             By Brajendra Nath Singh

             Indo-Asian News Service

      New Delhi, Sep 24 (IANS) India's failure to check growing terrorist attacks is due to politicisation of intelligence agencies as well as poor policing, says former National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra. He also thinks POTA is "not the solution" to terrorism.

      "The effectiveness of intelligence agencies has come down. Some of the intelligence agencies are more active spying what is happening in political parties than doing their work," Mishra told IANS in an interview.

      "However, only intelligence agencies cannot be blamed. Bad policing is also one of the reasons which has led to failures in preventing terrorist attacks.

      "What we need is intelligence inputs from the street, which we can get only through effective policing," he added.

      Mishra, who was one of the most powerful men in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee adminstration from 1998 to 2004 combining both posts of national security adviser and principal secretary to the prime minister, said he too favoured setting up a federal agency to deal with terrosism.

      "However without proper coordination with states, this agency cannot be successful," he warned.

      "The most important thing is to immediately stop the political use of the security apparatus.

      "What we need is better policing, strict laws, and effective intelligence agencies," he added.

      Mishra was asked if the Bharatiya Janata Party's demand for reintroducing the controversial Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) would help battle terrorists better.

      "POTA is not the solution. Neither is the federal agency," he replied. "POTA is not a magic wand which will solve all the problems."

      He refused to echo the mounting criticism of Home Minister Shivraj Patil in the wake of the Sep 13 terror atttack in New Delhi that killed 24 people and injured 124 when bombs went off in three crowded places.

      "Terrorist attacks have happened in the past also... The government must have strong leadership. I would not say who is good or bad. I would not like to point fingers at someone specific. Everywhere you have good and bad persons. This is a failure of the system. There is no law and order in the country," Mishra lamented.

      "What we require is to work together. Look at the US. After 9/11, all sections of society came together and ensured that no other incident happens after that.

      "But in India we are in the habit of starting a blame game as soon as (a terror attack) happens.

      "Terrorism is a national problem, all of us must join hands to deal with this," Mishra said.

     Indo-Asian News Service

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