Regional NSG hubs a mistake, says ex-NSA

[Jason bourne]

NEW DELHI: Former national security advisor and governor of West Bengal M K Narayanan on Friday said formation of four National Security Guard (NSG) hubs in various cities was "a mistake" and even questioned the provision of commissioning commercial flights to ferry commandos in times of emergency.

Interestingly, these decisions were taken in the aftermath of the 26/11 attacks by then home minister P Chidambaram when Narayanan was NSA.

The West Bengal governor was speaking at a lecture organized as part of the 28th NSG Raising Day celebrations. The theme of the lecture was 'Internal Security and Role of Special Forces'.

Narayanan spoke extensively on NSG operations during the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and also deliberated on increasing the mandate of the force.

Calling NSG the only "special force" in the country, Narayanan said it was caught in "doctrinal confusion" on its role and specially when and how to be used. He also blamed this confusion — on part of the force as well as the government — for the delay in its response to the Mumbai attacks.

Speaking on the role and operations of NSG, Narayanan said, "I have reservations over NSG regional hubs set up (after 26/11 attacks) in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Chennai. Making such regional hubs is a major mistake."

Narayanan questioned the idea of increasing the strength of the force through greater recruitment. "A special force does not draw strength from numbers. Its strength lies in the quality of its men. A special force should be leaner but highly trained, with state-of-the-art equipment. Emphasis should be on continuous modernization. Increasing numbers will have an impact on quality."

Both these decisions were taken post 26/11 attacks by the home ministry under Chidambaram. The idea was to have a quick response to 26/11-like situations through regional hubs as NSG was inordinately delayed during the Mumbai attacks.

Narayanan, however, said the delay was due to confusion on part of the government on when and how to use NSG. "There is a doctrinal confusion on the role of NSG. There is confusion on when and how to use it both on part of the force and the government. That is our biggest failure. In Mumbai, there was a delay as it was first thought to be a gang war. Also, the first response has to come from local forces and only when they are unable to control a situation, NSG should be pressed in."

Narayanan, however, said NSG should have its own aircraft and not depend on government or commercial aircraft. "If you get into the trap of commissioning commercial flight in times of emergency, you are going to be delayed," he said. Post 26/11, government had decided to give NSG powers to commission commercial flights in times of emergency.

Narayanan also said the force was underutilized and needed to be remodeled, given the demands of the modern era and its challenges. He said the government should think whether NSG could be used in Jammu and Kashmir, the North East and Naxal-affected areas. Without citing the recent abduction of Sukma collector by naxalites, Narayanan said the force was meant to be used in hostage situations.

"I think the force can be used, but sparingly, in Naxal-affected areas, specially in hostage situations," he said.

Narayanan was also critical of the force not concentrating on gathering its own intelligence and keeping itself updated on the nature and operations of various terror groups.

"NSG men walked into Mumbai attacks like blind men. You need to know who you are fighting, who you are behind. You are up against the finest brains on the other side," he said, adding that the force must study all terror groups, left-wing extremism and have as much intelligence as the Intelligence Bureau.

"I hope you have gone through the revelations made by (LeT operatives) Zabiuddin Ansari, David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana. That there are two Karachi projects," he said.

 

[Terminator]

I disagree with this gentleman, its his personal opinion not fact. Regional NSG response teams are imperative.....even every state police have started raising their elite forces now.

 

[sancho]

I disagree with this gentleman, its his personal opinion not fact. Regional NSG response teams are imperative.....even every state police have started raising their elite forces now.

But he has some points too! For example, it is not the number of special forces that counts in such an emergency situation, but that the one that will be used is well trained and equipped. With more and more special forces coming up, there will be battles again about responsibility and who takes orders from whom...
I do think we need several locations of NSG around India, simply by the size of the country and the high numbers of megacities, but at the as he said not the number of NSGs count, but their effectiveness!
Btw, does anybody know if NSG really could be used against Naxals? What does the Indian constitution say about this?

 

[shahadat hussain]

But he has some points too! For example, it is not the number of special forces that counts in such an emergency situation, but that the one that will be used is well trained and equipped. With more and more special forces coming up, there will be battles again about responsibility and who takes orders from whom...
I do think we need several locations of NSG around India, simply by the size of the country and the high numbers of megacities, but at the as he said not the number of NSGs count, but their effectiveness!
Btw, does anybody know if NSG really could be used against Naxals? What does the Indian constitution say about this?

Was the original contingent of NSG group in Haryana being diluted ? I don't think so.

As far as new hubs are concerned, it will be supplementary and help in quick reaction.

 

[Terminator]

But he has some points too! For example, it is not the number of special forces that counts in such an emergency situation, but that the one that will be used is well trained and equipped. With more and more special forces coming up, there will be battles again about responsibility and who takes orders from whom...
I do think we need several locations of NSG around India, simply by the size of the country and the high numbers of megacities, but at the as he said not the number of NSGs count, but their effectiveness!
Btw, does anybody know if NSG really could be used against Naxals? What does the Indian constitution say about this?

Remember we are a nation of 120 Cr people & area of 32 lac Sq Km.

 

[Abingdonboy]

This logic is flawed IMHO. Now if the increase in manpower is not accompanied by an increase in funds for get NSG or if the training imparted is of a lesser quality than in the past the yes there would be cause for alarm but as it stands neither of these things happened the training is the same and the budget has Been increased substantially. Addtionally he problem wih he NSG was there were too many SRG agents and not enough SAG relatively so he NSG had become a VVIP protection agency with CT as only a small part of what it did. Now it seems be SRG is being cut back so the NSG will be more capable to conduct CT ops. The fact is India is a geographically large country and it makes sense to deploy resources in multiple locations in a crisis situation he first hour is crucial and if any help is 2+ hours away at best then be likelihood of an emergency turning into a catastrophe increases. Yes states are training up their own specialist units but for dealing wih well armed and well trained terrorists like in 26/11 you really need a hardened force like the NSG. I think a nation of 1.2 BILLION can find more than the current number of NSG operators up to he task, for some reason the ex-NSA seems to think that such a large nation has a very small number of those up to it.

 

[COLDHEARTED AVIATOR]

I think he is right to an extent if he is suggesting that instead of deploying NSG everywhere the Govt. should have concentrated on training Police Units like Force 1 and SWAT and NSG should have been a comparatively smaller force with better trained and equipped troops for special operations.

Whats the use of having NSG in Mumbai when Force 1 is already present?

NSG should have instead been made a true SF which takes care of insurgencies and naxalism inside India.The SRG should have been detached and sent to SPG so that SPG could be called a true body-guard force of India while the NSG could be called a true SF of the country.

The Army is also facing problem in supplying troops for NSG so they could have a relatively smaller SAG group but highly trained and well equipped.

If this happens i have no doubt that NSG could easily become the best SF in the country in a few months.

 

[janon]

Well my take is that if we are creating NSG hubs across the country (I don't mind 3 or 4), we are playing into Pakistan's old idea of bleeding India by a thousand cuts. With that one cut (the Mumbai attack) we are having to spend so much on internal security.

The NSG was created as a paramilitary special force unit, the only one in the country. It was intended to do precision strikes in cases like op blue star, and they showed their value in the subsequent op black thunder, which broke the back of Sikh militancy with no civilian or NSG casualties. It was not created as a special response unit for every city in every emergency - that's what SWWAT teams of police forces do, not paramilitary special force units. It will have to be a huge recruitment of additional manpower, and remember, they would all be taken away from army units, thus straining the army's own manpower, and that too the best among them.

Instead, police forces of major cities should have special response units to engage the attackers in the event of a Mumbai like attack in future. At least they should be able to respond and keep them engaged until the NSG can arrive, a few hours later. Granted, the NSG shouldn't take anywhere as long to arrive as they did in the case of the Mumbai attack. A unit like 'Force One' of Mumbai is what I'm talking about. I don't know how good they actually are, but at least in principle they can neutralize any terrorist attacks in future, and keep the damage to a minimum until the NSG arrives, say in 2-3 hours. It would be much cheaper to have a trained team of such units in every city, because it would cost a lot less to train them than to train an NSG commando. They wouldn't need to learn heliborne assaults or parachute drops, because they would only be expected to tackle a certain kind of threat. NSG has to also train for jungle warfare, urban assaults, and military style raids. So having trained response units in every city, with highly skilled gunmen who can arrive anywhere in the city in the quickest time possible in trucks or jeeps or armoured personal carriers, and all of them recruited from the state police, would cost the nation a lot in terms of saving costs, as well as retaining trained military manpower for use in the military. Remember, armymen have a very diverse skill set that NSG commandos don't need (like driving tanks or firing anti aircraft weapons), and these skill sets are wasted during their stint in the NSG.

So if we can give the NSG ready availability of air transport (helis or fixed wing ones like C-130), so that can reach any city in the country from 3 or 4 bases within three hours, and have special response units in major cities, I think that would be the best possible solution.

Edit: I didn't see coldhearted aviator's post when I typed this. He says pretty much the same thing.

 

[Abingdonboy]

Well my take is that if we are creating NSG hubs across the country (I don't mind 3 or 4), we are playing into Pakistan's old idea of bleeding India by a thousand cuts. With that one cut (the Mumbai attack) we are having to spend so much on internal security.

The NSG was created as a paramilitary special force unit, the only one in the country. It was intended to do precision strikes in cases like op blue star, and they showed their value in the subsequent op black thunder, which broke the back of Sikh militancy with no civilian or NSG casualties. It was not created as a special response unit for every city in every emergency - that's what SWWAT teams of police forces do, not paramilitary special force units. It will have to be a huge recruitment of additional manpower, and remember, they would all be taken away from army units, thus straining the army's own manpower, and that too the best among them.

Instead, police forces of major cities should have special response units to engage the attackers in the event of a Mumbai like attack in future. At least they should be able to respond and keep them engaged until the NSG can arrive, a few hours later. Granted, the NSG shouldn't take anywhere as long to arrive as they did in the case of the Mumbai attack. A unit like 'Force One' of Mumbai is what I'm talking about. I don't know how good they actually are, but at least in principle they can neutralize any terrorist attacks in future, and keep the damage to a minimum until the NSG arrives, say in 2-3 hours. It would be much cheaper to have a trained team of such units in every city, because it would cost a lot less to train them than to train an NSG commando. They wouldn't need to learn heliborne assaults or parachute drops, because they would only be expected to tackle a certain kind of threat. NSG has to also train for jungle warfare, urban assaults, and military style raids. So having trained response units in every city, with highly skilled gunmen who can arrive anywhere in the city in the quickest time possible in trucks or jeeps or armoured personal carriers, and all of them recruited from the state police, would cost the nation a lot in terms of saving costs, as well as retaining trained military manpower for use in the military. Remember, armymen have a very diverse skill set that NSG commandos don't need (like driving tanks or firing anti aircraft weapons), and these skill sets are wasted during their stint in the NSG.

So if we can give the NSG ready availability of air transport (helis or fixed wing ones like C-130), so that can reach any city in the country from 3 or 4 bases within three hours, and have special response units in major cities, I think that would be the best possible solution.

Edit: I didn't see coldhearted aviator's post when I typed this. He says pretty much the same thing.

The "blleding India by a thousand cuts" policy of Pakistan is about brining India to the negitoating table because public pressure on the govt has forced it to. Strengthening up of internal security is hardly playing into Pakistan's hands! India's security appartus was already in dire need of upgrading and 26/11 seems to have been the catalyst. Look at US post 9/11 they have not had a single doemstic terror incident on a large scale, India has a long way to go because its base was already so poor but it is going to get there one day. Spreading out resources is a good idea and one other large countries do- the US has FBI HRTs deployed in numours locations across the US simiarly France has its elite GIGN located in numourous locations.

Even if you have dedicated a/c the travel time and unload time will always be too long so NSG hubs are a smart idea but only if the training isn't diluted but that is pretty much the opposite to what is happening.

 

[Agent_47]

He have some good points,
rather than increasing numbers we should make transportation easier.
provide them with c130j or Chinook choppers which makes tactical role easier.