Dimapur has over the years developed into a truly cosmopolitan centre and a gateway for the free flow of trade and services. From an economic perspective, the city remains unparalleled for the sheer volume of commercial transaction taking place. However, with the spatial and economic growth, Dimapur has also become notorious for illegal trade, trafficking, illegal migration, and a breeding ground for criminal and other anti-social activities. It is beyond doubt that Dimapur has become a conduit point for numerous clandestine activities. The porous land border that runs along its periphery provides a favorable terrain for proliferation of such happenings. The problem however seems to be that our government wake up only after something bad happens. For a few days there will be all sorts of post mortem exercise and a lot of publicity on how to strengthen security for Dimapur. However after some time, everything is forgotten and we are back to our normal lives only to be shaken again. The point is why we can’t take up the issue of pre-emptive security more seriously.
Many countries are now waking up to the experience of ‘Trans-national’ security issues defined as non-military threats which, crosses our borders and either threaten the political and social integrity or the health of its inhabitants. Moreover, unlike traditional security challenges, trans-national threats emerge slowly and often do not elicit a focused or timely policy response. In the backdrop of such threat perception, the point is whether any pre-emptive measures have been put in place by the State government to counter this new danger. Pre-emptive security measures must be taken up on a priority basis. This should include among others, improving intelligence networks, inter-agency coordination, up-gradation of the state police force in terms of modernization, having better personnel with investigative skills, need for a criminal info data base and to improve on the criminal justice system.
One of the other key problems of managing internal security in Nagaland has to do with the open borders which, are not regulated and protected in the way it should be. Unless something is done to improve border management, there is every possibility that the State will plunge further into an array of problems, disturbances and in the long run, even the probability of another catastrophe cannot be ruled out. Closer home, Assam today faces a serious threat to its internal security. Several suggestions had been made earlier by various organizations, including by the NSF, to improve the management of the State’s borders. Tight vigilance along the State’s border has to be taken up at the highest level of policy making given the fact that a major terrorist attack has already occurred within Nagaland’s border. Perhaps it actually makes sense for our national groups to start some kind of policing on matters of internal security. This should not be left to the incompetence of our present system. Some kind of enforcement should be there to help in monitoring cross-border movement and to consolidate the security of the Naga people and their land. As far as cross border issues are concerned one government alone cannot tackle and it will require cooperation between neighbours. The State government should also work more closely with their counterparts in the other States with whom it shares a common border and establish enough mutual trust in order to be willing to share sensitive operational intelligence. Moreover, a common agenda to confront trans-national security issues must emerge.
