‘Profile of next NSA will be different’

NEW DELHI - The next national security advisor (NSA), whose appointment is expected before Republic Day, is likely to focus on the problems of diplomatic engagement rather than be involved in operational intelligence coordination, government sources indicated Tuesday.

This shift in emphasis has been necessitated after Home Minister P. Chidambaram unveiled a series of measures for revamping the country’s internal security architecture last month, indicating that he would be the internal security czar.

Senior bureaucrats told IANS that former foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon is Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s first preference but a final decision on who will hold this key position will be taken in the next few days after consultations with the political leadership.

The prime minister has given Chidambaram complete freedom to revamp internal security. Given the changes he intends to bring about, the profile of the NSA will change, said a senior government official.

M.K. Narayanan, a former Intelligence Bureau chief who has now been appointed West Bengal governor, has been holding the prime post in the country’s security apparatus since January 2005. He exercised all functions relating to external and internal security and intelligence coordination.

But this (profile) is bound to change given the security climate and what the home minister hopes to usher in, said an official.

The three major changes proposed by Chidambaram relate to making the home ministry exclusively responsible for the management of internal security similar to the US Department of Homeland Security and the creation of a National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC) by the end of the year.

Home ministry officials said all intelligence agencies will be brought under one roof and will report to the NCTC chief who will be a thorough professional, possibly designated director of national intelligence.

Prominent international strategic affairs analyst K. Subrahmanyam has said that much of the executive role for intelligence will shift out of the new NSA’s hands and so also internal security management, which will shift to the revamped home ministry.

The NSA should continue to have his coordinating role in respect of internal security in order to apprise the National Security Council of the continuing developments in the internal security situation, he has argued in an article.

Shedding of various executive responsibilities and assuming an expanded coordinating role will make the NSA more effective and permit the prime minister to implement his strategic vision better.