Home Secretary G. K. Pillai
Kalyani Shankar: The capital punishment for Afzal Guru is in focus again. No one understands why the Delhi Government had kept it for four years and suddenly woken up to deal with this. How long do you think it will take for a final decision? Secondly, why such a long queue of people who were given capital punishment even after Supreme Court verdict?
GK Pillai: See, after the Supreme Court verdict, all these accused persons have the right to file mercy petition to be considered by the government. We get the comments from State Governments concerned and it is examined in the Ministry on merits and the recommendations with the approval of Union Home Minister, is then made to the President of India for consideration. The President of India, not just the present one, but in the past also, they have been hesitant in terms of imposing capital punishment, and therefore, they have been raising their reservations on whether it should be done, whether there is a chance for looking at it again. And in this process, the matter has got very unduly delayed.
Kalyani Shankar: The case of Afzal Guru is something different. You know, they were trying to take over the Parliament and if they had succeeded, they would have killed most of our leaders at that time. Is that not on a different track than what we normally look at.
GK Pillai : I don't think the merits of the case that somebody has been found guilty, to me that is not into question at all. It is after that, under our laws, he still has a right to file a mercy petition and that mercy petition has to be examined and the recommendation of the Union Home Minister is actually binding on the President. The government in one sense has not been able to persuade the President to sign off on the death penalty. The matter is getting delayed. The final decision which I think the political system will have to take. The Delhi Government go with the recommendations of the Union Home Minister and it will go to the President and the President will then have to take a decision.
Kalyani Shankar: Do you think that there is a need to change the government strategy in tackling the Naxalites ? Secondly, does the Home Ministry want more powers and broader mandate to deal with this?
GK Pillai : See, the strategy of the Government of India is very clear. It is, as the Union Home Minister puts it, is a two-pronged strategy – one to provide security to the people in the area and the second is to ensure development reaches the people. I think we need to very clearly distinguish, because there is lot of confusion between Naxals, Maoists and so on. I think what is very clear is that the CPI-Maoists have a name and objective which is laid down in their documents alone, which is the overthrow of the Indian State by armed means. In so far as the Government is concerned, this is an organisation which has been banned as a terrorist organisation, an unlawful organisation. Current strategy looks at providing what I would call as "secure areas", that as I put, a security grid in an area where there is, shall I say little or no governance and then having put that security grid which is by way of a police station and paramilitary forces to give security to the people, the local administration moves in immediately to build roads, primary health centres, public distribution system and so on. This is something which we have started only post-November 2009, so it is less than six months.
And we see the impact of that in limited areas where we have operated, for sheer lack of, shall I say, policemen. There are many areas where we have not been able to reach out to and Dantewada was one such area where we have yet to move into. Our strategy is possibly to move into that area in about a year, a year and half's time.
Kalyani Shankar: But you know, the Maoists are still retaliating. It happened in Dantewada twice. They seem to be targeting the CRPF and even sometimes innocent people. You say that are not enough policemen. What is the State Government doing? Why they have not been recruiting more people?
GK Pillai: Yes, we are short. In fact, as per the sanction strength of policemen which is itself very small, we are short of about 3.5 lakh policemen in the country. But if I need the norm of 220 policemen for a lakh of population which is the UN norm for developing countries, I need about 8 lakh policemen. So, I have to recruit eight lakh policemen, I am recruiting now this year about a lakh and a half. So it is going to take me about five years literally to recruit eight lakh policemen, to have the full complement where I am in a position to have enough policemen in police stations. No doubt that within five to seven years we will be able to control the situation completely.
Kalyani Shankar : Well, in the meantime, if the Maoists attack some other places, what is your counter ?
GKPillai: They will attack because their strategy is to try and disperse forces as much as possible. We have to stay concentrated on our particular action. While in some areas the Maoists may gain, where they are not there today. In other areas we are actually taking back territory which, shall I say in Kanker district, we have possibly taken back about 3000-4000 kilometers of area.
Kalyani Shankar : The Prime Minister is likely to visit Jammu and Kashmir next month and may resume talks with the separatists like Hurriyat. What will be the basis of the talks and secondly, how far is the Government willing to go in meeting their demands.
GK Pillai : The Prime Minister has set up various Round Tables and the recommendations of the Round Tables have come to the Government. These are under discussion to deal with the whole series of elements---from the issues of development to autonomy and so on. Now, each one of these are separately being processed and examined in consultation with the State Government. We have had, I may say, what the Union Home Minister called "quiet diplomacy", with many of the separatist leaders.
These are primarily to find out what is it exactly that they want. You cannot be just talking about the generalities. Now, once we come to a very clear understanding of what the separatists want in terms of autonomy, then it is possible for us to be able to move forward towards that goal. Simultaneously, we are now moving forward in terms of cross-border LoC trade, people are moving from Jammu and Kashmir to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and vice versa. That itself has been very largely welcomed in the state and we have seen that as normalcy starts to improve, tourism has been good this year, the Amarnath Yatra went off peacefully. People realised that there is a stake for them in the system. I think you will find the forces for peace have pushed this dialogue process further.
Kalyani Shankar: But, what would be the Prime Minister's agenda. I mean, when he is talking to them, there should be something on the table.
GKPillai: See, I think at this stage, we have not got a very clear idea from the separatists themselves as to what is their demand in concrete general terms. So, it is very important for us to continue the dialogue and the reason why some of it is required to kept quiet is because of the so many competing groups, that if you don't keep it relatively quiet among themselves, each one will only be trying to outdo the other to take an extreme position which does not help us to move the dialogue further. Quiet diplomacy has started. The fact is that Pakistan is very unhappy with the quiet diplomacy. It is a very strange aspect that Pakistan would say that it is an issue which has to be solved between India and Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan and they would love to talk with the separatists. But when we talk to the separatists, the Pakistanis are all up in arm. And this is what exactly the separatists themselves told Pakistan when they went there. They said we talk with you, the Indian Government does not object, but when we talk with Indian Government, why do you object? And it just shows in one sense, what shall I say, the contradictions in the Pakistan policy.
Kalyani Shankar : Does the Home Ministry think that the cross-border terrorism in the Jammu & Kashmir region has decreased ? Is there any possibility of demilitarisation on the border ?
GK Pillai: I don't think the cross-border terrorism has shown any signs of decrease. From all available indications, the number of training camps for terrorists in Pak-occupied Kashmir, and may be in Pakistan itself, there has been no decrease at all and we have literally infiltration from across the border on a daily basis.
Kalyani Shankar : In spite of that there is demand for demilitarisation, even from parties like the PDP. But the Government has reduced some forces.
GK Pillai : Yes, in 2009 it has considerably reduced, I think a total of about 30,000 paramilitary forces were taken away. The Army itself has reduced. And to a certain extent, the Jammu & Kashmir police have taken their own steps to strengthen themselves. There has been a recruitment of about 9,000 Jammu & Kashmir policemen. We have also, what we would call as part of efforts to see that there is visible impact of what we call as demilitarization, ensure that all paramilitary forces except when they are on combat duty against the militants, would all be in khaki uniform. We have also drawn up a programme and we hope by the end of 2010, we should be able to have got all the paramilitary forces and the military, out of what we would call as 'sensitive locations', that is where they were occupying schools, where they were occupying government buildings, where they were occupying stadiums and so on, would have got them completely vacated.
Kalyani Shankar : Militancy may be on the wane in the North-East, but there are threats of Maoists spreading their network. How do you propose to deal with the Maoists establishing contact with the insurgent outfits like ULFA and the NSCN-IM in the region?
GK Pillai : The culture in the North-East is quite different and it is a whole series of ethnic identities which are in one sense bursting out, if you want to say it, in the North-East and mistakes were made in the first decade after independence, I think for which we are in one sense paying the price even now. But, I think there is a greater understanding and I think the recent steps which we have taken like LTC for all by air to the North-East is helping a lot of people to mingle and understand each other's cultures. I think we have a lot to learn from them.
Kalyani Shankar : Is there any forward movement in the Naga peace talks? Also, you had been in Manipur recently to persuade Muivah from entering Manipur to visit his village. Will he listen to you? And moreover, the NSCN has submitted a list of 30 demands. How far is the Government willing to meet their demands?
GK Pillai : The Government of India have made it very clear and I have myself stated that both sovereignty as well as the integration of Naga areas is literally out of the question because we don't want to create more problems. We have to find imaginative solutions to try and deal with this type of situation. The interlocutor has had good talks, a number of proposals are on the table and I am quite hopeful, because the civil society in Nagaland is extremely keen that a solution be found.
Kalyani Shankar : Manipur is almost burning and you have been persuading Muivah not to visit there. So, what is the way out ?
GK Pillai : I think it was unfortunate. I think his demand or his request to go to his home village is something which could have been accepted. But I think the timing was wrong because of the fact that there was the District elections coming up and the known opposition of the NSCN-IM to the holding of District elections was a severe provocation. We understand his request to visit his village. Now, we have advised him that he should wait till the situation is more conducive for his visit.
Kalyani Shankar : Now, are you concerned about Manipur, the situation on the ground level now ?
GK Pillai : Yes, we are concerned about it, we have spoken with the Chief Minister, we understand his concerns, we have told him that the territorial integrity of Manipur is not there for negotiation and Government of India is totally committed to the territorial integrity of Manipur. And I am hopeful that when the situation normalises, I think in one sense, both sides would show the wisdom and vision to move forward.
Kalyani Shankar : During the Budget session, there was a lot of furor about phone-tapping. Is the Government proposing to make amendments to the 1880 Indian Telegraph Act to include new sections for regulation and control of use of air interception equipments.
GK Pillai : Yes, we have noted the concerns which had been raised in the Parliament and we are proposing certain amendments to the Indian Telegraph Act with the Department of Telecom and we hope that we should be able to make adequate regulations to regulate the passive equipment which is available of monitoring of telephone lines. We are hopeful that all equipments which is in private hands will have to be surrendered. That would be part of the regulation future.
Kalyani Shankar : Commonwealth Games are just a few months away. Are you sure that we will be able to conduct the games ?
GK Pillai : I am quite confident. I think we have drawn up very elaborate security arrangements. We have even an international security liaison group with security experts from Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada and so on. They have vetted our arrangements. They are quite happy with the arrangements as they are and we would, of course, be continuing to upgrade the security in the light of the threat situation as it develops.
The interviewer Kalyani Shankar is senior journalist.
Source: www.mynews.in
Manipur has been facing a severe economic blockade for 46 days. No food, no oxygen in hospitals, no medicines, no petrol. If Mumbai or Delhi had been similarly cut off, everything would have been done to resolve it. What about Manipur? How long do you think it will take to resolve this? 
