As we go into the elections, political parties must engage in debate on national security issues | The Indian Express

As we go into the elections, political parties must engage in debate on national security issues | The Indian Express

Written by Shyam Saran |Updated: March 15, 2019 8:26:35 am

<em>The writer, a former foreign secretary, served as the prime minister’s special envoy for climate change.</em>

As we go into the elections, political parties must engage in debate on national security issues

Citizens have the right to hold their political leaders and governing institutions accountable. It is unacceptable to assert that questioning the armed forces or government is unpatriotic.

There is regular smuggling from across the sea and our land borders is an open secret. Terrorists slip through using these smuggling routes often relying upon corrupted elements in security forces. (PTI/Representational Image)

In the wake of Pulwama and Balakot, national security may become the key issue in the forthcoming general elections. A focus on national security is assumed to bring advantage to the ruling BJP as it could sweep aside the Opposition’s efforts to leverage the failures of the government on generating employment and relieving farm distress. It would be most timely if national security indeed became a serious election issue, not in terms of scoring political points, but in drawing attention to persistent infirmities in our governance systems, the failure to address serious gaps identified by expert committees such as the Kargil Review Committee (2000) and the Naresh Chandra Task Force on National Security (2012) and the blatant lack of accountability apparent in avoiding public reckoning in subsequent serious security lapses evident in the Pathankot, Uri and now the Pulwama incidents.