To Our Dear Prime Minister - From Air Marshal SY Savur (Retd)

Dear Prime Minister,

I admire you hugely for all that you have done for the Indian economy and for many things that you have done for India since becoming the PM. Today, I watch is despair the terrorist attack inspired frenzy of promises and assurances of action. I plead for sanity, clear thought and an action plan that is not only effective but also long-term.

I plead with you; do not be tempted to take knee-jerk, short term decisions without considering their long term implications just because you want to be seen as a man of action. In the nearly 5 years you headed the Govt, you took time to even think that there is need for counter-terror mechanisms, so a few days more will not be of substantial loss unless you have the General Elections 2009 in your sights.

I plead with you not to disperse the Special Action Group (SAG), the counter-terror arm of the NSG to the four metros. Have you heard about the Special Air Service (SAS), counter-terror fighting unit of the UK being dispersed even though it fights all over the world?

If you heed some opinion and disperse the SAG please consider the following: -

Centralised training ensures that standards are the highest and the same for every man in the SAG. Dispersal would mean that training standards and maintenance of equipment would be diluted because different people train differently in different circumstances. And there will be temptation to provide one unit more/better equipment because some one will tell you that the perception of terrorist threat there is more than elsewhere.

If at all you want to place the SAG in a place where it can reach any corner of India then please consider Nagpur. It is equidistant in terms of flying duration from the 4 metros as well as the large cities of Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

Nagpur’s Sonegaon airport is not the busiest of airports and the IAF base there has an IL-76 squadron which can make available its aircraft. It is better to utilise the large open spaces for setting up a training facility than making an air cargo hub that nobody will use.

While on this topic of aircraft, please ensure that more than six IL-76 are serviceable at any time by providing them the spares that they badly need. You know that one of the reasons that the SAG was delayed was because the IL-76 became unserviceable and the SAG had to be flown in by An-32 (not because the IL-76 is slower than the B-737 or the Airbus). Come to think of it, why wasn’t an Air India Airbus used?

Please make the MoS-cum-National Security Adviser (NSA) just a MoS. Let the MoS handle the political requirements, which Prabhu Chawla said was herding MPs to support the Govt in July 2008.

The NSA should head the National Security Agency (not the National Security Council which is top heavy and hence unable to take quick decisions or react to any crisis). The NSA should be a serving officer selected from amongst the (in alphabetical order so that I don’t step on some corns) Deputy Chief of Defence Staff (Intelligence), Director of the IB and the Secretary, R & AW. The post should be held on a rotational basis for a fixed tenure of 3 years.

Please make the Director IB, Deputy Chief of Defence Staff (Intelligence) and Secretary R & AW answerable to the NSA for collection, collation, analysis and dissemination of intelligence.

Please make every State’s ADGP (Intelligence) responsible to the NSA for ensuring action and feedback on the intelligence inputs supplied to the States.

Please place an embargo on any intelligence or police authority talking to the Press or leaking information when an operation is in progress; better still till prosecution of the apprehended terrorist or completion of investigation in case of deceased terrorists is over. It will help by not providing the terrorist set up or leaders so that the SAG can complete its job.

Please tell the media that by giving breathless descriptions and broadcasting TV pictures they are actually helping the terrorists and their outfits know where the counter-terror SAG persons are and what they are doing. I shudder to think whether the terrorists were watching TV channels (and surfing them too) to know what was going on to help them play “hide and shoot” with the SAG.

The leadership of the LeT, JeM even the ISI must have been glad that, (in alphabetical order), Aaj Tak, CNN-IBN, Headlines Today, NDTV, Times Now et al were giving them a free ringside seat.

Sir, in your extensive travels and study you would have found that the British media showed restraint in broadcasting pictures of the bombing in the Underground, the Police and the Intelligence agencies did not resort to the blame game nor passed the buck. Why does our IB, R &AW always tell us that they told the State Police and the police did nothing? After all the same IB and R &AW is staffed by IPS officers!

Sir, why should the DG NSG have to tell the media what they already know? Have you ever heard of, let alone seen a photo, of the commander of the SAS? Why shouldn’t our SAG/NSG also do their job and disappear? Is it because DG NSG wants exposure so that he is rewarded in the next Republic Day honours list? Even that could be done but quietly.

Sir, I cannot but appreciate your firmness in telling India that you will not cut the price of petrol, diesel etc because the oil companies had suffered losses. How about the same firmness in handling the IB, R &AW etc?

Finally, Sir, the Federal Investigative Agency – laudable but will go the way the CBI unless you give it the autonomy of the Election Commission, Comptroller & Auditor General even the Chief Vigilance Commissioner.

Thank you, Prime Minister for your patience.
Jai Hind

Air Marshal SY Savur (Retd)

Indian Army: Counter Insurgency Force Motto

"It's God's responsibility to forgive the terrorist organisation, It's our responsibility to arrange the meeting between them and god."