National security for Gujarat

Security of the country and maintaining the sovereignty of the country are equally important when we discuss about the society. The dangers of Kargil like incidents where the Subramanian committee has not only condemned for the lapses in our intelligence but also lamented for the lack of any wisdom or focus in the intelligence network. If Kargil is one of the blunders of failures of our Indian intelligence safeguarding the country is still a daunting task. We don't know whether Subramanian committee's recommendations are enough or not. An earthquake on January 26th 2001 at 8.15 a.m. may be a coincident, but why not we suspect the same for any other sabotage (either underground device or some other means). China was the first country to announce 9.4 on the Richter scale and this magnitude occurred only once in the 100 year period. There could be many traitors within the country who would be helping enemies. Hence this has to be tackled by targeting elements both within and outside the country.

Some of the maps show as if there is no inhabitance in the Rann of Kutch region. A place where dense mangrove vegetation (northwest part of Kutch) can be found has been neglected. The population per square kilometer is far less than other parts of Gujarat. Would it be that shelling of bombs from across the border threatens the people to migrate from the Kutch area. Alternatively is the desert area is not conducive for any inhabitation? We should seriously think of constructing a naval base near Lakhpath, bordering Rann of Kutch along with an airbase and army camps. That would become a real deterrent. As otherwise we are neglecting an area that has high economic potential. Whatever may be the case the Rann of Kutch area seems to be porous for militants to intrude. Prawn culture, which has been successful along both coasts of India in generating foreign exchange reserves for India as an export-oriented business should be explored in the Rann of Kutch area also. Studies on mangrove ecosystem functioning, primary productivity and biodiversity are sparse in this area. Seaweeds that have been a staple food for the entire South East Asia have not been tried in India. Studies show that macroalgal diversity is rich in Gujarat coast. Further, for improvement, the arid region of Rann-of-Kutch should be covered with drought resistant plants. In countries like Brazil trials have been done on dumping sewage waste into desert and barren lands. Such trials can be done here also by sprinkling sewage water and spreading bio-waste. Over a period of time the nutrients would allow the growth of xerophytes initially followed by mesophytes subsequently. The salt tolerant plants such as Casuarinas should be tried.

Future wars belong to electronic warfare. Whoever has advantage in the electronic warfare will win the wars. Hence we have to equip ourselves with the latest state-of-the-art technology. Our main motto should always be maintaining peace and extend friendship. We should always talk about peace from a point of strength (both militarily and economically) and not from a point of weakness. While almost entire India is within the reach of missile range of Pakistan, we don't have a similar strategy vis-à-vis China. Whether our minimum deterrence is enough to deter enemies is suspicious.

Those who stay in the Border States only suffer the cross-border terrorism and other states or citizenry are not bothered about what is happening in our borders. Many of these states have to cope-up with terrorism day in and day out. If states that don't have this problem think that it is not their problem one day they will also have to face a similar situation. We have people of separatist tendency and not bothered about pan Indian security aspects.

A multipurpose identity card is proposed which will contain the following details and will be used in the following departments. A 10 digit number should be given to each citizen. It should contain the following: (i) family details viz., name, father's name and other family members, full address, criminal records if any; blood group, annual income; with a photograph and finger print, etc.; (ii) the number should be included in the ration card or family card; (iii) to be interlinked to IT departments; Passport office; Driving license; Telephone department; Home; Social Welfare; Health for birth certificates and the last but least the Census department (will be useful for statistics on population, gender ratios; different age groups; employed vs. unemployed; literacy rate, etc.). Everything should be computerized and all the links to individual departments should also be linked. This exercise will be a mammoth one but information technology will come to our rescue. While the above information can be maintained as confidential in the Home department and the privacy has to be safeguarded except for a few details upon request by each department i.e. the particular number can be shown everywhere. This will save the time for the identity and credentials of a person. This way unauthorized persons roaming in India can be easily caught.