PM Modi to interact with DGPs at meet

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to play the country’s top cop as he is likely to break an age-old tradition and interact with the country’s DGPs at the forthcoming two-day conference on internal security hosted by the Intelligence Bureau. Normally, the PM only addresses the gathering of the top security brass. But it is learnt that this time Mr Modi wants to be hands-on with the country’s top cops at a time when ISIS threat looms large in neighbourhood even as cross-border terrorism continues to pose the biggest threat to India’s internal security.

Incidentally, the conference is being held in Mr Modi’s home state Gujarat in Rann of Kutch where the top security brass will gather to review the progress in new measures like smart policing announced last year when the top cops met for the first time under the NDA regime. Union home minister Rajnath Singh will also be camping in the state drawing the necessary focus on his government towards the key areas of concern facing the Central and state police forces.

It was in 2014 when for the first-time, the top security brass the was asked to move out of New Delhi for the annual leadership and meet in Guwahati, breaking the tradition of New Delhi playing host to all the state police chiefs. This time, Gujarat’s Runn of Kutch is a considered venue for the conference where India’s sensitive coastline will be given the required focus and border guarding and border infrastructure will be among key issues taken up at the meet.

Incidentally, the Rann of Kutch region has been used for smuggling activities by elements based in Pakistan and the sea routes had first been used for terror activities by the D-company which had the vast network and knowledge of country’s coast-line raising hackles in the security establishment. The region remained a prime area of concern for Mr Modi during his stint as the Gujarat chief minister and he had flagged the issue several times slamming the previous UPA government for not paying enough attention to Gujarat’s coastal security concerns.