Minister admits India's intelligence network lacking co-ordination; urgent need to 'pull up' socks

Mumbai: There is an urgent need to firm up India's intelligence network and that there is scope to “pull up” socks, Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju has said.

Speaking at the Gateway of India Dialogue here, Rijiju said on Tuesday that a lot of lessons need to be learnt from the Pathankot airbase terror attack in January this year.

“Even the recent Pathankot incident… despite having precise intelligence inputs, still the incident took place. There are certain things, we do agree, where we need to get up and pull up our socks,” Rijiju said.

The minister said the government is working on developing a system that will ensure seamless sharing of information among various agencies, both at centre and state level and even the private organisations.

"We are very much aware that the success will depend on how much we share our information with each organisation," he said.

"Unless we connect (separate organisations) with each other, for seamless sharing of information and for proper coordination, we will never succeed," he said.

Rijiju acknowledged the failure to set up the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID), mooted by former home minister P Chidambaram after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.

“We get criticism that we are not taking forward NATGRID as it was envisaged. I do admit that. We should have progressed much faster. I also agree that we need to put in more resources because no matter how robust each body is, unless you connect them with each other for seamless sharing of information, it will fail,” Rijiju said.

Speaking on the Islamic State terror group, Rijiju said India need not worry as “our people have a strong character”.

"When some youths left India to join ISIS, it is their parents and the Muslim society at large which have been instrumental in persuading them to get back," he said.