Harini Calamur: Home ministry in dire need of restructure

One more day, one more bomb blast. 12 more citizens killed. 73 injured. The key department in keeping us safe and secure, within India’s boundaries is the Ministry of home affairs.

The ministry is headed by P Chidambaram who is assisted by two ministers of state, Jitendra Singh and M Ramachandran.

However, the war on terror is not the only function of the MHA. The ministry of home affairs ‘has multifarious responsibilities, important among them being internal security, management of paramilitary forces, border management, centre-state relations, administration of union territories, disaster management, etc.’

In addition to this, although ‘public order’ and ‘police are responsibility of the individual states — the ministry keeps an eye on any law and order situation, issues advice, gives guidance & expertise to the states ,and gives support via additional personnel & money. The MHA is organised into various departments and divisions that handle different aspects of the ministry’s portfolio.

The department of border management: management of borders, including coastal borders; department of internal security: management of IPS, central police forces, internal security, law & order; department of J&K affairs: management of constitutional provisions in respect of the state of Jammu & Kashmir and all other matters relating to the state; department of home management: notification of appointment of various constitutional positions, and census; department of official language: implements the provisions of the Constitution relating to official languages and the provisions of the Official Languages Act, 1963l; department of states: management centre-state relations, inter-state relations, union territories and freedom fighters’ pension (Source: the MHA website)

If you thought this is a lot of work, there is more. There are a further 17 divisions that perform a variety of functions. These are administrative, border management, centre-state, coordination division, disaster management, finance, foreigners, freedom fighters & rehabilitation, human rights, internal security (two subdivisions, one of which deals with internal security and law & order, and another that deals with arms & ammunition), narcotics, the National Security Act, Jammu & Kashmir, judicial, Naxal, management, North Eastern, Police (Police 1 is the cadre controlling authority vis-à-vis the IPS while Police 2 deals with central police forces, police modernisation, policy planning and finally Union territories divisions.

From the point of view of management, you have a ministry that is creaking under the weight of all that it manages. Its span of control is too high, there are too few people at the top managing it, and it is muddled in terms of all the things that it does. To be effective, the ministry has to be restructured and reconstituted. There needs to be coherence in the role of each ministry that is created.

The Minister for Home & Internal Security, ideally, will have three ministers of state reporting to the HM — for law & order, internal security, and borders. It could include both the internal security divisions, work relating to Crime & Criminal Tracking Network System (CCTNS), the policy planning department, the Naxal management division and those aspects of J&K and the North East that deal with security.

Ideally speaking it should spin off VIP security, also under its remit, as a separate department with its own hierarchy. Also this ministry would have the judicial division that deals with the IPC and the CrPC. It may also want to contemplate the setting up of a Central Prosecution Service. The ministry will also continue to look at passport, visa, immigration, citizenship, overseas citizenship of India and related issues.

The Ministry for Federal Affairs will possibly be one of the most important ministries in the coming years. The role of this ministry is to ensure that there is adequate co-ordination between the states in terms of legislation, taxation, economic policies. This ministry should also look at the non-security related issues of J&K, the North Eastern states and the union territories. This ministry will also look at the implementation of the constitutional and legal provisions relating to official languages.

Divisions like human rights division could possibly move under the ambit of the NHRC, a statutory autonomous body, and the disaster management cell could move under the ambit of the NDMA, which in any case reports to the prime minister.

In an era of complexities you need specialised ministries. Better to split the function and deliver on each count rather than keep it all together and fall flat on all counts.