EVEN as the Parliamentarians debate on India’s Operation Sindoor that dismantled terror infrastructure situated inside Pakistan, Union Home Minister Mr. Amit Shah has flagged a pressing issue of internal security which faces stiff challenges due to changing geopolitics in the neighbourhood. Mr. Shah’s insistence for the State Police forces and Central security agencies to remain alert and ensure better coordination stems from the dangers terror sleeper cells, urban naxals, and cyber crooks pose to the country.

 

To a large extent, India has managed to pin down naxalism in hitherto hotbeds and also swooped on terror modules in sensitive regions to avoid any major incident. Terrorist activities have also largely been confined to a few pockets in Jammu and Kashmir. India’s security and Intelligence agencies have managed a strict vigil on challenges within the country, but the changing dynamics in the neighbourhood, especially after the Pahalgam terrorist attack of April 22, call for a revised strategy to ensure that no untoward incident shakes the society. Mr. Shah’s statement that geopolitics involving India’s neighbour can potentially trigger danger to internal security needs to be understood from the large spectrum of threats which the country will have deal with in the future. India’s growing economic heft and rising global stature has already attracted big attention from many non-state actors. There is a live threat to internal security not only through attacks or terror activities but also via fake narrative war and cyber attacks.

 

The challenges are dynamic and require an equally robust response from all security agencies working in tandem with the Home Ministry. Fake narratives peddled through social media platforms has emerged as the biggest threat for internal security. The last few months have seen some disturbing incidents caused by fake posts on social media leading to riots and clashes. This is the new form of warfare that actors inimical to India’s rise have resorted to. The Union Home Minister has flagged similar threats as he called the security forces and agencies to adopt the motto of security, alertness and coordination. The cyber domain is a live threat for India as its security agencies ramp up their systems to fight it. They have managed to foil hundreds of cyber attacks on critical Government establishments and financial institutions so far. But it is a vibrant place where the cyber crooks keep evolving their strategies to attack systems. Last year’s cyber attack on two major banks in India had resulted in a big data theft.

 

These are the challenges that form the domain of internal security. It will have to be fought with a reliable ecosystem for real-time data sharing. What the Operation Sindoor has showed the internal security agencies is the use of technology is set to be dominant by anti-India forces. The Indian Air Force was confronted with high-level digital systems as its attacks were tackled by Pakistan with the use of Chinese technology. The IAF was a step ahead of these systems to inflict tremendous damage on Pakistan. But the operation brought new lessons for the entire security ecosystem about the massive change in war tactics to be used in the future. India’s internal security also has to remain battle-ready to deal with such operations in the future as the first enemy strategy is always to attack critical systems running day-today life in a country. Heightened awareness about rapid changes in the world of technology is highly imperative for the forces managing internal security. It entails creation of specialised departments and recruitment of domain experts who can become a link to the security forces. For a rising India, keeping its home totally safe is a necessity.