Security Related Matters - MAY 2019...crackIAS.com Source : Date : 2019-05-03 THE MAOIST CHALLENGE...

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Source : www.indianexpress.com Date : 2019-05-03

THE MAOIST CHALLENGERelevant for: Security Related Matters | Topic: Linkages between development and spread of extremism incl.

Naxalism

© 2019 The Indian Express Ltd.All Rights Reserved

The IED blast that claimed the lives of 15 security personnel and their driver in Gadchiroli,Maharashtra on Wednesday is a grim reminder of the challenge the Maoist movement continuesto pose to the country’s internal security. The dead men belong to the C-60 force, an elitecommando group of Maharashtra police, modelled on the Greyhounds of Andhra Pradesh. Theattack comes a year after Maharashtra police gunned down 40 suspected Maoists in the sameregion. Clearly, the Maoists want to sent out a message that they still posses the firepower totake on the security forces and establish territorial dominance.

The geographical location and forested terrain has enabled the Maoists to establish a base inGadchiroli, a tri-junction of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. However, the statepolice reportedly has infiltrated the Maoist organisation in the region and created its own networkof informers. Maoist actions in the region has drastically come down unlike in neighbouringChhattisgarh, where in April an MLA was killed along with four security personnel. In fact, thesuccess in containing Maoist activities may have given a false sense of security to thecommandos, who ignored the standard operating procedure when they drove out, all of them ina single vehicle, to confront the ultras who had torched the vehicles of a road constructioncontractor in the area. That they didn’t suspect any possible ambush on the way also points tointelligence failure. The Maoists have always shown a remarkable capacity to regroup and strikeback even in places they have faced severe crackdown: For instance, they had killed an MLAand a former legislator in Araku Valley last year, when it was believed that the movement hadbeen crushed in Andhra Pradesh. It could also be that the state had failed to address thedeprivation and underdevelopment that in the first place created an enabling climate for theMaoists to build a base.

The Maoist movement or CPI (Maoist), born out of splits in the communist movement in the1960s, has reinvented itself many times to become an influential militarist political group. Itscadre base too has shifted from peasants in the 1960s to tribals in the 1990s and thereafter.However, a decade since the then prime minister, Manmohan Singh, described them as thegravest internal security threat, the ultra-left political movement is now restricted to pockets ofCentral India. A focussed and co-ordinated effort by security agencies could further limit itsfootprint and finally end its violent run. That’s both a political and administrative challenge.

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Source : www.thehindu.com Date : 2019-05-03

LOST LIVES: ON GADCHIROLI NAXAL ATTACKRelevant for: Security Related Matters | Topic: Linkages between development and spread of extremism incl.

Naxalism

The death of 15 security personnel in a landmine attack in Gadchiroli on Wednesday is anothergrim reminder of the Indian state’s continued failure to crush naxalism. Less than a month ago, alegislator and some security personnel lost their lives in a similar attack in the neighbouringState of Chhattisgarh ahead of polling. That this attack should occur despite the deployment of30 companies of the Central Reserve Police Force — a company comprises 135 personnel —and 13 companies of the State Reserve Police Force as well as 5,500 personnel of the localpolice in Gadchiroli and neighbouring Chandrapur district shows not only the audacity of theperpetrators but also the unpreparedness of the security forces. A Quick Response Team wasgoing down the road to Dadpur in Kurkheda where extremists had set fire to three dozenvehicles of a road construction company earlier in the day when the explosion blasted the teamto smithereens. The ease with which the extremists were able to torch so many vehicles isalarming, and the manner in which the response team blithely drove into an ambush is ashocking example of poor planning. The naxals set the bait and the security forces blindly tookit. In the process, standard operating procedures, including letting a road-opening team lead theway, seem to have been ignored. Yet, the authorities still remain in a state of denial.

It is no coincidence either that the perpetrators chose the Maharashtra Foundation Day, after thepolling in the district, to send this violent message. That the naxals should be able to control thenarrative, remain on top of the intelligence, stay nimble and several steps ahead of the securityplanners should be a matter of deep concern. It is some comfort that the polling percentages inboth Gadchiroli and neighbouring Chandrapur have risen, compared to the 2014 Lok Sabhaelection, from 70.04% to 71.98% and from 63.29% to 64.65%, respectively. But the path of thevoter to the polling booth in the naxal-dominated districts is still paved with disincentives. And,the security forces deployed in the region have not been able to instil in them a greater level ofconfidence. On top of everything else, most of the police personnel who perished in this latestattack seem to have been local citizens. What effect could this have on the larger process ofweaning away the populace from the naxalites? Reality beckons. Even in the prevailingcircumstances of a hostile external environment, India cannot afford to take the challenges ofinternal security lightly.

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THE WAR ON TERROR IS IN PERILRelevant for: Security Related Matters | Topic: Role of External State & Non-state actors in creating challenges

to internal security incl. Terrorism & illegal Migration

“The attacks in Sri Lanka underline the many cracks in the concept of a global War on Terror.”Security personnel inspect the interior of St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo, Sri Lanka, on April22, a day after a bomb blast in the church. AFP

The brutal attacks on Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka, for which the Islamic State (IS) claimedresponsibility, have reignited discussion on the global ‘War on Terror’. Scholars and officialsacross the world are studying the links of the bombers to the IS’s former ‘Caliphate’ in Syria,where at least two of the bombers are believed to have travelled, and several leaders have nowcalled for a greater focus on the global dimensions of the counter-terrorism effort. The attacks inSri Lanka, however, also underline the many cracks in the concept of a global ‘War on Terror’,and raise questions on what it has achieved in the time since the term was coined by formerU.S. President George W. Bush after the September 11 attacks in 2001.

First, the original mission that the War on Terror was named for is floundering. Not only has thecoalition of about 60 countries that sent troops and offered logistical support for ‘OperationEnduring Freedom’ failed to end terrorism in Afghanistan, it appears it is preparing to hand thecountry back to the oppressive Taliban regime that it defeated in December 2001. This, despitethe fact there is no guarantee that the terror groups living in safe havens in Pakistan will not alsohave the run of Afghanistan once the coalition pulls out.

A new fault line in post-war Sri Lanka

The war in Afghanistan was only one of the many coalitions the U.S. led in the name of the Waron Terror: 46 nations joined the ‘coalition of the willing’ to defeat Saddam Hussein in Iraq in2003, and 19 were a part of the coalition that ousted Muammar Qaddafi from power in Libya in2011. The U.S. and allied countries were sidetracked by the ‘Arab Spring’ in 2011, which ledthem to bolster anti-Bashar al-Assad groups in Syria. This eventually paved the way for the IS toestablish a ‘Caliphate’ in territories in Syria and Iraq. The next coalition was formed to fight theterror of the IS. The number of global terror attacks (maintained in a Global Terrorism Databaseby the University of Maryland of events from 1970 to 2018) per year went up from 1,000 in 2004to 17,000 in 2014. It is clear that the countries in question — Afghanistan, Syria, Libya and Iraq— are far from free of the spectre of terrorism. Despite the defeat of the ‘Caliphate’ territorially,the IS or its franchises are appearing in new parts of the world. Sri Lanka is the latest on that list.

Second, rather than helping fight pan-Islamist terror groups, the War on Terror appears to helpthe IS and al-Qaeda more, giving them a footprint far bigger than their actual abilities. This helpsthem recruit and radicalise Muslim youth from around the globe, and allows them to ownterrorists around the world as their own, as IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi did in a rare videoposted shortly after the Easter Sunday attacks.

Third, the narrative they build of a “fight for Islam” is equally false. According to the GlobalTerrorism Database, of the 81 terror attacks in which more than 100 were killed (high casualty)since 2001, more than 70 were carried out in Islamic or Muslim-majority countries. In a specificsearch of high casualty terror attacks on religious institutions since 2001, 18 of the top 20 wereby Islamist groups on mosques. The War on Terror thus appears to be a concept peddledmostly by pan-Islamist groups and propagated most often by extremists of other religions as amotive for terror attacks, such as the 2011 Utoya island attack in Norway or the New Zealand

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attacks this year. Governments in countries affected by terrorism must not subscribe to thisnarrative blindly.

Easter Sunday bombings: Why Sri Lanka?

In Sri Lanka, for example, the reason the members of the National Thowheed Jamaath (NTJ)were successful in their diabolical plot had as much to do with the fact that intelligence inputsgiven by India were ignored as it did with the fact that since the defeat of the LTTE, Sri Lankanauthorities had let their guard down and ignored growing internal fault lines. As a result, despitecomplaints about the speeches that suspected mastermind Mohamed Zahran Hashim made asa preacher of a mosque in Sri Lanka’s Eastern province, he went unchallenged. Police andintelligence agencies also failed to keep a stern eye on other NTJ bombers who were ISreturnees, despite the fact that only about 32 Sri Lankans in all are believed to have travelled toIS territory.

Fourth, it is necessary for countries fighting terrorism to learn more closely from theirdifferences, rather than try to generalise from experience. Comparing European states like theU.K., France and Belgium, where hundreds of immigrant Muslims have enlisted for the IS, toSouth Asian states like India, where Muslim populations are indigenous and only a few dozenare believed to have left for Syria, is akin to comparing apples and oranges. Indian officials havealso claimed a higher success in deradicalising IS returnees, because they have enlisted wholefamilies, neighbourhoods and local Maulvis in their efforts. In Bangladesh too, after the 2016attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery, government advertisements asked mothers to check on theirchildren’s activities. This acknowledgement that radicalised terrorists are a part of a communityis in stark contrast to the current debate in many European countries that are refusing to take ISreturnees and their families back. Similarly, several Central Asian states propagate a much morehard-line approach on counter-radicalisation, by banning beards and hijabs, while China’s re-education internment camps in Xinjiang have raised questions about human rights. The successor failure of each of these approaches must be studied before deciding their applicabilityelsewhere.

Fifth, the world community must address contradictions in the War on Terror. For 20 years, theworld has failed to agree on a common definition of terrorism at the United Nations. This hasheld up the passage of the Indian-sponsored proposal for a Comprehensive Convention onInternational Terrorism. Despite the fact that Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar has beentargeting Indians incessantly for years, they must ask why China allowed his UN SecurityCouncil designation as a global terrorist only after mentions of his attacks in India wereremoved. They must ask why the U.S. is focused on billing Iran the “world’s biggest statesponsor of terrorism”, while states like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan that have funded andsheltered Islamist terror groups are still treated as “frontline allies” on terror. And why, despite alltheir resources and expertise, the alliance of the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Australia and NewZealand that share global intelligence was unable to see the impending threat in Sri Lanka.Unless the world is truly united on the issue and resolves such contradictions, the global War onTerror will only be as strong as its weakest link.

[email protected]


It is horrific and undemocratic for a nation to be putting the onus on citizens to prove theirIndianness


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Source : www.hindustantimes.com Date : 2019-05-14

DOES INDIA NEED A LAW CRIMINALISING FAKENEWS?

Relevant for: Security Related Matters | Topic: Role of Media and Social Networking Sites in internal securitychallenges

In what’s being criticised as a controversial and ambiguous law, Singapore’s Protection fromOnline Falsehoods and Manipulation (Pofma) Law criminalising fake news and allowing theauthorities to remove objectionable online content was passed recently. It went so far as to allowpolicing of private conversations to ensure that misinformation is not transmitted. Despite abacklash from opposition parties, human rights groups and tech companies due to its vaguenessand anti-privacy stance, the law, or rather the intent of a law of this kind has merit.

India’s battle against fake news has got fiercer with time, with the government pressuring techcompanies for more content regulation, and tech companies attempting to clean up one messafter another. This is why we saw WhatsApp limit forwarded messages to five, and Facebookstruggle to build an unbiased Artificial Intelligence system to detect and block fake news (it stillhasn’t succeeded fully). But to place the complete onus on for-profit companies (here,intermediaries largely guarded by law) to regulate content is irresponsible. With over 468 millionsmartphone users in India (a big broadcasting tool), WhatsApp and even regional languagemedia platforms have been used to target marginalised groups, causing brutal lynching andmurders on mere “suspicion” of illegal activity. So, if India were to move in the same direction asSingapore and enact a law, it should do so with caution to ensure that the intent of the law isn’tto stifle freedom of speech but to safeguard citizens from the dangers of fake news and falseinformation. It would require finding a fine balance to ensure authenticity without affecting freespeech. India’s approach must be more nuanced. This includes defining fake news, ensuring adifference between fact and opinion (including only the former under the ambit), meeting privacyconcerns under Article 21 of the Constitution, safeguarding the freedom of press and followingdue process of the law every time. India must not follow in the path of Singapore or even Russia,whose anti-fake news laws allow too much power to governments to stifle content unfavourableto them and their agenda. However, one positive aspect of Pofma which is beneficial for India isthe ban on fake accounts and bots.

Fake news is an online epidemic, and the way forward is three-pronged: One, rethinking theintermediary liability rules to ensure a greater degree of social responsibility and transparencyfrom tech companies; two, passing a law that strictly defines fake news, and three, ensuring techliteracy through awareness drives, to inculcate the habit of verifying all content received. We’vewitnessed the Internet build what’s called a global village, changing the way we communicatewith one another. Both, information and misinformation are at our fingertips. This only meansthat it is almost as easy to spread fake news as it is to verify it.

First Published: May 13, 2019 08:00 IST



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INDIA SIGNS ‘CHRISTCHURCH CALL TO ACTION’Relevant for: Security Related Matters | Topic: Role of Media and Social Networking Sites in internal security

challenges

India on Wednesday signed the ‘Christchurch Call to Action’. The agreement came in thebackdrop of the attacks on mosques on March 15 and is aimed at stopping abuse of the Internetby extremists.

“The dissemination of such content online has adverse impacts on the human rights of thevictims, on our collective security and on people all over the world,” declared a statement issuedby the 17 signatory countries.

The meeting held in Paris was attended by representatives of online giants like Microsoft,Google, Twitter, Facebook and Amazon. India was represented by Ajay Prakash Sawhney,Secretary.








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WHAT IS INDIA’S STAND ON DATA STORAGE?Relevant for: Security Related Matters | Topic: Role of Media and Social Networking Sites in internal security

challenges

Information Technology background | Photo Credit: bluebay2014/Getty Images/iStockphoto

The story so far: Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg recently expressed apprehension about nationswanting to store data locally. According to him, it gave rise to possibilities where authoritariangovernments would have access to data for possible misuse. In an earnings call with investorsin late April, he reiterated his stance against data localisation, without mentioning a country.Earlier that month, the U.S. criticised India’s proposed norms on data localisation as ‘mostdiscriminatory’ and ‘trade-distortive’. India is at a juncture where various bills are ready to besigned into law that will set data localisation and protection regulations in stone.

Data localisation laws refer to regulations that dictate how data on a nation’s citizens iscollected, processed and stored inside the country.

Among reasons supporting data localisation put out by the Justice Srikrishna Committee reportlast year, a few key ones are: Data localisation is critical for law enforcement. Access to data byIndian law agencies, in case of a breach or threat, cannot be dependent on the whims andfancies, nor on lengthy legal processes of another nation that hosts data generated in India.

If data generated in India is stored in the U.S., for example, it is dependent on technology andchannels such as the undersea fibre optic cable network. Such reliance can be debilitating in thecase of a tech or physical breakdown. The report recommends that hence, at least a copy of thedata must be stored in India.

Technology playfields are not even. A developing country such as India may be playing catch-upwith a developed nation, which may be willing to offer liberal laws. It may not be wise for India tohave the liberal rules as other nations would. A key observation of the report is that it is ideal tohave the data stored only locally, without even having a copy abroad, in order to protect Indiandata from foreign surveillance.

Currently, the only mandatory rule on data localisation in India is by the Reserve Bank of Indiafor payment systems. Other than this, there are only reports or drafts of bills that are yet to besigned into law.

Among material available in the public domain on data localisation is the white paper thatpreceded the Jusitce Srikrishna Committee report, inviting public comments.

The second piece is the Draft Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018 itself which has specificrequirements on cross-border data transfers. This is seen as being more restrictive than therecommendations of the Srikrishna Committee. The draft e-commerce policy also has clauseson cross-border data transfer. For example, it suggests that if a global entity’s India subsidiarytransfers Indian users’ data to its parent, the same cannot be transferred to a third party evenwith the user’s consent.

The Justice Srikrishna Committee report has made a point about not treating all data alike. Forexample, a user’s reading preferences are not as sacrosanct as his or her Aadhaar details. Thedata protection bill too differentiates between ‘critical’ and other data.

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The disadvantage for a company compelled to localise data is obvious — costs, in the form ofservers, the UPS, generators, cooling costs, building and personnel. Companies feel thatinfrastructure in India is not yet ready to support this kind of ecosystem. For any large e-commerce player in India, costs may go up between 10% and 50% depending on howstringently the final law is worded. The big daddies of e-commerce and social media may notfind it too difficult to comply. Small companies providing services in India will find compliancetough. In fact, one of the objectives of data localisation is to give a fillip to the start-up sector inIndia, but stringent norms can make it costly for small firms to comply thereby defeating thisobjective. While this places small entities in a difficult position, the spirit of the Justice SrikrishnaCommittee report seems to imply that this is not reason enough to avoid compliance.

While granting that the data protection bill comes after a lot of homework, observers feel it is stillnot comparable to the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which took a few yearsto draft, adding scholarly and academic depth to the consultations, inputs and the final wordingof the law.

It is well known that Canada and Australia protect their health data very carefully. Vietnammandates one copy of data to be stored locally and for any company that collects user data tohave a local office, unlike the EU’s GDPR; citing national interests, China mandates strict datalocalisation in servers within its borders. International reports refer to data protection laws inVietnam and China as being similar, in that they were made not so much to protect individualrights as to allow government to control data.

For the EU, it is clear that customer is ‘king’. Their GDPR is agnostic to technology and sector.Interestingly, the U.S. has no single data protection law at the Federal level. It does, however,have individual laws such as the HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of1996) for health care, another for payments, and the like. Brazil, Japan, Korea and New Zealandhave put in place data protection laws. Chile has recently announced the setting up of anindependent data protection authority, while Argentina is currently reforming its privacylegislation.

In September 2018, the EU had said in its response to India’s data protection draft bill that “datalocalisation requirements appear both unnecessary and potentially harmful as they would createunnecessary costs, difficulties and uncertainties that could hamper business and investments”. Itadded that if implemented, “this kind of provision would also likely hinder data transfers andcomplicate the facilitation of commercial exchanges, including in the context of EU-India bilateralnegotiations on a possible free trade agreement”.

For companies from one country doing business in another, it becomes cumbersome to havetwo different compliance levels.


The spokesman said WhatsApp, which has more than 1.5 billion users, immediately contactedCitizen Lab and human rights groups, quickly fixed the issue and pushed out a patch.

The executives at the third-party app makers fear that they are being punished because theirapps could be roadblocks on Apple’s business growth.



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