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ShareSeven months after the terror attacks on Mumbai, the plan to have commando centres across the country has been put into action. National Security Guard (NSG) Commandos are now stationed in Mumbai and by today, will be in Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad as well. This may seem like an idea whose time had long come and gone but surprisingly, it was not really on anyone's radar. It was only in the aftermath of the November 26 attacks on Mumbai that the lack of an available quick response unit was felt.
It took over nine hours for the NSG commandos to finally reach Mumbai, by which time the police had exhausted itself and the Marine Commandos had held fort. Although the police received flak for its lack of equipment and the loss of its own personnel, their bravery could not be doubted. But it also became clear that the police are simply not trained for this kind of an anti-terrorist operation and special units, prepared in terms of training as well as arms, are required. A cogent response to the Mumbai terror attacks came only when the NSG commandos began their operations; it was done with precison and a high degree of skill -- it was what had been trained for.
However, the questions which were raised by the Mumbai attacks and the response time to them, remain. India has been a victim of terrorist attacks for some years now. Why did it take such a drastic and audacious attack to realise that special crack units were required all over the country? Why, in spite of all the advances we seem to have made in other fields, is our attitude to policing so old-fashioned?
Even now, while the four cities which have been sent these commando centres will be grateful, we have to ask whether this will be enough. India is a very large country and our infrastructure and bureaucracy make everything very cumbersome, especially travel. Will these commandoes be able to reach the whole of India from these four centres? Or do we need smaller special unit teams spread across the country for our anti-terrorist operations to be effective?
Of course, these are logistical issues. Much bigger than this is the question of shared information and intelligence between all the various policing forces across the country. At the end of the day, that was the biggest takeout from the November 2008 attacks. Without that information, even crack commando teams will be battling more than they bargained for.
