Long over due - “India needs better border management” : Pranab Mukherjee Defense Minister of India
Prabeer Sinha
Apr. 5, 2005

Indian borders are most ill protected. The illegal immigrants are entering from Bangladesh and spreading all over the country including Kashmir. From Pakistan infiltration happens everyday. Maoists from Nepal are attacking remote Indian territories and even using them as bases near the India-Nepal border.

The Defense Minister and the Government finally came out and said that they will correct these problems. India needs a solid lock on the borders.

According to Media Reports, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee asked the armed forces to prepare for better border management as the "most potent threats" to the country were not from conventional wars but from terrorism, insurgency, nuclear and missile threats.

Addressing bi-annual army commanders conference here, the Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the border management also included better air and maritime surveillance.

Mukherjee, touted as number two in the Congress-led UPA government said while India was moving towards solution of all outstanding issues with both its neighbours Pakistan and China by promoting confidence building measures (CBMs) and greater interaction, the softer borders would not be allowed to promote subversion and terrorism.

He also made an open call for manpower reduction in the armed forces expressing concern that large part of defence budget allocation was taken up by manpower expenditure. Mukherjee said there should be a move for a smaller "tail" in the army, whereby, maintaining that action should be initiated to prune support elements in the armed forces.

Elaborating on the unconventional threats, the Minister said at the low end such threats were coming from terrorism, insurgency, religious fundamentalism, arms smuggling and at higher end of the spectrum from nuclear and missiles threats and weapons of mass destruction.

While saying that situation in Jammu and Kashmir had shown a perceptible change towards the better with the cease-fire along the Line of Control holding, except for few violations, Mukherjee said security forces needed to be alert as the militant infrastructure along the LoC remained still intact.

The four-day army commanders conference is expected to take stock of the situation on both Sino-Indian and Indo-Pak borders ahead of summit-level talks between New Delhi and Beijing and discussions with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf.

Referring to upcoming parleys, the Defence Minister said India's approach towards Pakistan was to pursue a dialogue on all outstanding issues and simultaneously expand people-to-people contacts and promote confidence building measures.

On China, Mukherjee, sidestepping the visit of the Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, said that periodic discussions were being held on bilateral issues. The Minister, touching on developments in neighbouring Nepal, described the situation there as a "cause of worry".

Turning back to modernisation process in the armed forces, including induction of hi-tech weapons and surveillance systems, he said while expansion of defence cooperation with US was on the card, Russia continues to be the country's major strategic partner.

He also said that Israel had emerged as an important technological partner in Defence. The Defence Minister told the armed forces that there should be inter-services coordination in planning induction of weapons systems and called on them to draw up joint plans. He said weapon systems acquired for any service should be compatible with that of other services for effective interoperability.

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