Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Centralized intelligence gathering

I keep reading about a National Investigation Agency in the lines of America's FBI being setup in India. It will have sweeping powers over the jurisdiction of a State's administration and police force. Unlike the CBI which requires the state government's consent to investigate a case, the NIA will receive directives directly from the centre.

I do not understand why we need another investigative agency. Why cannot we make CBI efficient and elevate it with the powers of NIA? Though important in investigating an offense after it has been committed, it is a waste of our politician's sparse[sic] time discussing and tabling this in parliament.

We need an agency to prevent attacks from happening. We have two such national agencies in IB and RAW for domestic and foreign intelligence and a multitude of state agencies. What we need is something in the lines of America's Department of Homeland Security which coordinates the efforts of these intelligence organizations. It is the mother ship that collects and analyzes information from all its subsidiaries and constantly innovates to meet new threats.

2 comments:

tt_giant said...

I agree. But as we see in the case of US too, there might be corruption even at the highest levels. And the last thing we would want is a corrupt intelligence operation!

Maverick said...

In spite of corruption existing in the US, it is minimalistic and covert compared to blatant corruption here. The crooks get caught there with their credibility taking a beating and the very same crooks get voted back with greater powers here.

The system here should be cleaned and that can only be done voting for a clean system.

Though I despise most of the masala reported on rediff, I do find some good articles posted there. One such article that has corroborated my rant is below:

http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/dec/17mumterror-do-we-really-need-the-nia.htm