Last Moment Intelligence Is Not Intelligence And Why IB Need To Get Rid of Self-Assured DIBs

After numerous reminders and perhaps stern remarks by top brass, the Multi-Agency Centre(MAC)  continues to face a disruptive Intelligence flow. Top sources say that the State Multi Agency Centre still don't share full Intelligence and sometimes hesitates to share Intelligence with MAC. One of the key agencies in the whole Intelligence grid is the Intelligence Bureau and its subsidiaries in various states(SIBs). Perhaps the reason is not the hesitation but SIB's weakened ability to expand its Intelligence operation base, a top source said. The Intelligence Bureau's job is to see counterintelligence and oversee Counter-terrorism operations. While IB's counterintelligence job is going well, its counter-terrorism operations are still fixated on J&K. "IB should have expanded its  Intelligence operational capabilities at length and breath across conflict spectrum and various other threat zones as terror declines in the valley", a top source added.

The failure to expand operationally is causing IB on two fronts. First, IB's reach to new and in-depth Intelligence is limited on the collective front. Second- it limits action bandwidth; Intelligence has no meaning. If it arrives late on the table, the later Intelligence, the lesser the action bandwidth. Both fronts may sound quite similar, but one deals with Intelligence, and the other deals with Intelligence management, and IB's balance between Intelligence and its management is currently uneven.

IB's Intelligence management in Manipur is significantly under scanner where the bureau not only faced serious challenges on the collective front but also faced challenges in managing the Intelligence, a top source in the security establishment said. The bureau, with joint efforts of security establishments and other Intelligence agencies, has carved out considerable space in J&K for continuous Intelligence flow, which is commendable, but that happened due to the strong familiarisation of Intelligence top brass with J&K terrain and long-drawn attention that it got in past few years to dismantle terror. However, the real test for any Intelligence agency lies in its subversive capabilities to collect new and In-depth Intelligence.

In the case of Manipur, IB faced many roadblocks to subverting inside insurgent areas effectively; the difficulty mounting collective/clandestine and offensive Intelligence operations in unfamiliar terrains when they face conflicts perhaps lies in IB's dwindling operational proficiency. Many Special and Joint Directors are not operationally proficient in the tradecraft business. The key Faultline in IB officers is that they do less Intelligence arbitration and underutilise Open Source Intelligence(OSINT) that squeezes their Intelligence assessment skills, merely reducing it to a subaverage assessment where one hardly takes long and sustainable actions- a faultine even noted by former Special Secretary R&AW Vapalla Balachandran.  Had such Intelligence arbitration skills and culture been promoted in IB, subversion and mounting collective and offensive intelligence operations would have been easier. At least, such a confused state of affairs wouldn't be there.

The lack of serious Intelligence culture in IB results from incompetent and operationally rusted Directors. In the recent past, we had two IB chiefs who made the bureau work like a police detective department rather than a hardcore Intelligence agency. "We don't need Self-assured Directors who lack in cultivating collective Intelligence synergy", a top source in Intelligence establishment said. The current IB Director, Tapan Deka, who took the reins three years back, now seems to be facing real operational competence issues like former BSF DG Nitin Agarwal faced after getting flanked from all corners. As Deka nears the completion of his extended tenure, North Block must choose the next IB Director who can take the synergised agency into a hardcore Intelligence agency and not sit on his laurels.