Rajnath’s Plan to Build Wall Along Indo-Pak Border Is an Absurdity

Rajnath Singh had announced that the Indo-Pak borders will be sealed by 2018 once a wall is constructed.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh visited a stretch of the India-Pakistan border in Rajasthan a few days ago. The chief ministers of all three states bordering Pakistan were also present.

The purpose of the visit was to review the effectiveness of the border-guarding measures and devise a coordinated strategy to make them more functionally strong.

Rajnath announced that the borders will be completely sealed by the end of 2018 once a wall is constructed across its length.

What exactly was meant by “building a wall” is not very clear. Did Rajnath actually mean that a concrete wall will be put up along the more than 1,000-km border with Pakistan?

Or did he use the expression euphemistically to imply that the border-guarding measures will be suitably strengthened to reduce terrorist infiltration?

If he meant the first then I have no hesitation in saying that whosoever advised him on it has no knowledge of the dynamics of border-guarding. The idea is outlandish and impractical and not worth considering.

• Rajnath Singh recently announced that the Indo-Pak borders will be completely sealed by the end of 2018 once a wall is constructed across its length.
  
• If a wall is to be constructed at or 150 yards on our side of the border, it will make the BSF totally blind to activities across the wall.
  
• History tells us that several walls built in the past, such as the Great Wall of China or the Berlin Wall, failed to contain invaders and infiltrators.
  
• There has been a lot of stagnation in the force at all levels and perfunctory measures taken to address them has so far provided only temporary relief.
  

Ground Rules on Construction

The ground rules followed by Pakistan and India prevent any construction, which can be used for defence purposes, within 150 yards of the international border.

The fencing along the Line of Control has similarly been constructed at or beyond 150 yards and within Indian territory.

So, if a wall is to be constructed at or 150 yards on our side of the border, it will make the BSF totally blind to activities across the wall.

Farmers who even now find it inconvenient to go across the fence will be even more afraid of going across the wall. Gradually the strip of land lying across the wall will be practically ceded to Pakistan.

History’s Other Obstructions

History tells us that several walls built in the past, such as the Great Wall of China or the Berlin Wall, failed to contain invaders and infiltrators.

The Berlin Wall could not totally stop East Germans from crossing over to the western part of a divided Germany. Thus, any thought of construction of a wall along the India-Pakistan border should be nipped in the bud as it will be a sheer waste of finance and efforts.

Policy planners should instead focus on enhancing effectiveness of the existing border-guarding systems and capacity enhancement of the BSF. There are many important measures that can be taken to ensure this.

BSF’s Manpower Problems

First, the present system of border guarding continues to remain manpower intensive with a unit area of responsibility varying from about 25 km in Jammu to over 60 kms in Rajasthan and Gujarat.

The western borders are fenced but the patrols have to physically dominate the fence. This takes a heavy toll on the troops as they are required to put in almost 16 hours of duty per day, including the time spent on training and administrative duties at the border outposts (BOPs).

The answer to this is to introduce modern technology in a manner that the entire stretch of responsibility of a BOP remains under surveillance and intensively monitored from a control room located within the BOP.

The troops can then be properly rested and react quickly to any developing situation. This has been partly done in Jammu with extensive use of thermal imagers.

Mobility is Tough

This also implies that the troops be adequately mobile. In the past few years, the government has inducted a large number of vehicles.

Realistically, however, mobility remains a problem as the entire stretch of the fence does not have parallel roads. The government must, therefore, invest in building roads along the huge stretch of the fence which, besides being useful to the BSF, will also ease problems of the border population.

The riverine stretches on the India-Pakistan border need special attention as these cannot be fenced and are prone to frequent exploitation by infiltrators. These stretches need to be covered by installing effective modern surveillance devices to keep the area under 24-hour watch.

Lack of Capacity Building

Another aspect that warrants serious attention is the capacity building of troops. The BSF was raised in the aftermath of the 1965 India-Pakistan war and its training philosophy remains militaristic.

While totally doing away with military type training would not be prudent as the BSF has a war-time role, a balance must be struck between war-like and border management aspects.

At present, the troops are hesitant to use modern devices available to them as they are not familiar with them prior to their induction. Therefore, it must be ensured that training on modern equipment and weaponry is imparted to them at every level.

An important measure is to enhance the capability of the BSF’s intelligence wing and build upon the practice of ‘lead intelligence agency’ to further improve coordination of intelligence gathering effort, especially when there are multiple agencies involved in collecting information.

BSF Needs Reforms

Last but not the least, the BSF’s human resource policies need extensive reforms.

There has been a lot of stagnation in the force at all levels and perfunctory measures taken to address them has so far provided only temporary relief with long-term problems remaining unaddressed.

Besides, as the policy level leadership has no ground experience they are not capable of leading from the front.

I sincerely hope that the home minister meant improving the effectiveness of border guarding through measures suggested above and not the physical wall when he referred to construction of a wall along the India-Pakistan border.

(The writer retired from the BSF as an additional director-general. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)