Speech by Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar, MP and Chairman, FICCI Task Force on National Security and Terrorism at the Press Conference for theRelease of the First Volume of the Task Force Report

09 November, 2009, New Delhi

Shortly after 26/11 a year ago, FICCI organized a Conference on National Security and Terrorism.  Coming as it did soon after one of the most visible attacks on us, the conference predictabily attracted much attention and discussion. More importantly, from my point of view, it pointed to a need for all of us to get engaged in a longer term way in shaping the discussion and the response of our government to this threat of terrorism.

26/11 was an unprecedented attack on our nation.  It reinforced the often forgotten fact, that we have a war being waged against us.  The difference was 26/11 was an attack on the economic centers and establishment of our country. We have all come to realize that if left unchecked, this growing threat has the potential to derail our economic and social progress. On the one hand, some of our neighbours have combined conventional military wisdom and statecraft to support terrorist organisations that are determined to bleed India. On the other, naxalism and Maoist violence is spreading.  It is a crisis unparalleled in the history of young India.

After many years of neglect, the real priority for the Government is prevention and pre-emption – i.e., to protect us all by taking the necessary steps to secure this country and its people from further attacks.

To secure India requires immediate and actionable steps, and so, FICCI’s Conference on Terrorism and National Security in the aftermath of 26/11, came up with a series of action points were finalized and published. But it was clear that there needed to be a medium and longer term plan and strategy, and so, FICCI assembled some of the finest minds in the field of national security and terrorism to understand the challenges, to put together a comprehensive set of policy suggestions that the government, the corporate world and the civil society must adopt without further delay. These are contained in this – the first Volume of the Report.

The objective of this report to help the Government enhance and augment the nation’s internal security. The Report projects a broad vision and recommendations on counter-terrorism measures for the Central Government’s consideration.

It calls for the government to undertake viable and implementable solutions to the multiple and complex security challenges that India confronts today. Ultimately, all great battles are fought in the mind. In a landscape of evolving terrorist threats and spreading violence, it is the need of the time that new ideas and institutions must come up to create lasting solutions, whilst existing institutions like the State police are strengthened and professionalized and an institutional and sustainable model of communication and interaction between the various agencies is developed.

For those of you who don’t or can’t read the whole report, Pages 13 to 17 summarize the recommendations that we are making.

This report is being presented to Shri P. Chidamabaram today by this Task Force later this evening. A second volume is under preparation that will focus on the non-traditional issues linked to Terror like Money Laundering, Immigration etc.

Let me end by saying that the corporate sector has long been silent spectators in the debates on issues like National security and so I feel that it is critical that civil society, corporate sector, media remain engaged and aware of this threat and challenge to our nation and people on a long term basis. More than anything else, this is most important and we can all play a role by reaffirming that – the determination to remain engaged and focused on this will be our way of paying remembrance to the events of nearly one year ago and all the terror victims of that day, before and after.

I hope this first volume of this Report will serve to do that.