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Vajpayee summons high-level security meeting on October 16

Faced with American pressure to resume dialogue with Pakistan after the Jammu and Kashmir election, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has convened a joint meeting of the National Security Council, the National Security Advisory Board and the Strategic Policy Group October 16, India Abroad newspaper reported this week.

The last time such a high-powered joint security meeting was held was in June 1999, at the height of the Kargil conflict to discuss India's options.

What has foxed India's security managers is Pakistan's refusal to heed US warnings on ending cross-border terrorism, and the sudden escalation in violence in Jammu and Kashmir as also opening another front in states like Gujarat. In fact, there is a growing conviction in government circles that the Lashkar e Tayiba, nurtured by and based in Pakistan, was behind the attack in Akshardham.

Hemmed in by the unremitting violence from its western border on one hand and by the prodding from Washington to move into dialogue mode on the other -- Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca conveyed just such a message in New Delhi last fortnight -- Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani suggested that the high-power meeting wrestle with the decision at a half-day session October 16.

The National Security Advisory Board has been discussing India's options vis-à-vis Pakistan. Some of its hawkish members have suggested to the government to adopt a proactive policy on terrorism and carry the battle into Pakistani territory.

The alternative suggestion facing India is that it suggests a resumption of dialogue not on wide-ranging topics, but narrowed down to the nuclear confidence-building issue. This, it is felt, will be in harmony with the suggestions made in the February 1999 Lahore Declaration between Prime Minister Vajpayee and deposed Pakistan premier Nawaz Sharif.

Such a step, it is felt, would be one way of beating the US pressure to resume talks.

The two views are likely to be circulated and debated at the October 16 meeting.

The National Security Council, National Security Advisory Board and the Strategic Policy Group were set up in December 1998 on the recommendations of a Special Task Force headed by former defense minister K C Pant, which was given the brief to revamp India's national security management structure.

Its other members were Jaswant Singh, presently finance minister, and Air Commodore Jasjit Singh, then director of the Institute of Defense Studies and Analyses, New Delhi.

The National Security Council, which is chaired by the prime minister, consists of the home minister, external affairs minister, defense minister, finance minister, Pant and any other minister co-opted by the prime minister.

The National Security Advisory Board consists of non-governmental experts on national security matters. The first board, appointed in December 1998, prepared the Draft Nuclear Doctrine and the first Strategic Defense Review.

The Draft Nuclear Doctrine was released to the media but the recommendation to release an executive summary of the Strategic Defense Review was rejected by the government.

In June 2001, the second National Security Advisory Board submitted a National Security Review.

The third National Security Advisory Board, which is currently in office and completes its term December 14, is updating the National Security Review of the second board with a focus on Pakistan and internal security. It would recommend policy options to the government in these matters.

The first two boards were headed by strategic analyst K Subrahmanyam.

The present board is headed by C V Ranganathan, a retired Indian Foreign Service officer and former ambassador to China, who is a China expert.

The Strategic Policy Group, which is chaired by the Cabinet secretary, is a body of serving government experts on national security. It prepares inputs for the NSC and Cabinet Committee on Security, and consists of the home secretary, foreign secretary, defense secretary, finance secretary, chiefs of the three services of the armed forces, the director, Intelligence Bureau, and chief of the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency.

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