National Security Advisor Ajit Doval revealed at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit in New Delhi on Saturday that two Indian men have joined the Islamic State of Iraq and Al Shams (ISIS). India provided a negligible number of recruits to the insurgent group in West Asia because Indian Muslims are against it, he said.
He said, “Two confirmed reports we have is of one who died and one about whom we do not know much right now. The bigger thing is from the entire ulema of India, not even one Muslim religious leader has supported ISIS. All of them have issued fatwas against it saying it is unislamic.”
Mr. Doval added, “There have been at least five or six cases where some youth showed some inclination to join the ISIS. It was their parents who approached the police and intelligence agencies and sought their help in preventing their wards from joining. Now this is where India is different… Whereas in France 2000 boys have joined from that minuscule population. The entire community comes to shield them. No one gives any information. Even when people have died they celebrate it as a great service to religion and society.”
Need for strong economy
Speaking on India’s future security threats, Doval said that economic growth was the bulwark against insecurity. “When our country that has a huge market and vast economic capabilities, you will have international clout and there will be a vested interest of the world to see India protected. It will have a surplus of resources to provide for defence or police or technology development. A strong economy is the surest thing for a secure country,” he explained.
He recounted examples of the cold-war saying that it was economic factors or not external aggression that were responsible for the fall of nations.
He added that it was imperative for India to modernise technology in every sphere, particularly defence production, immediately. “We may have contact-less or electronic wars. We are probably going for weapon system where it may not be necessary to engage in the battlefield… The country will have to start preparing from now for a very massive programme of technology upgradation.”
Doval pointed out that India is struggling against corporates in the cyber battlefield. “One of the problems we have is that technologically we have lost out in certain areas where the root servers are all under control of countries that are not under our control. A lot of these control systems are with the West mainly the US… They are helpful to us in some areas but not always helpful, particularly in the corporate world. There are corporations which are very powerful and they use it. I don’t want to name them, but they are very powerful.”
The most critical factor of national security, he said, “is the will of the nation… This depends on our values of fairness, justice and equality.”
Chinese construction activity in PoK
Commenting on the Chinese construction activity in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, Doval said, “We have got to see their consequence particularly if it is passing through areas which are in PoK which is close to our border and actually that is our own territory. We should take it up and I think we have taken it up from time to time with China and Pakistan. And it is a matter of which strategic view and strategic cognisance needs to be taken and I think Government should prepare itself for possible consequences.”
