Indian society is extremely sensitive to challenges of security, perhaps more than many of its contemporaries and it faces conventional and non-conventional threats of a broad range, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Tuesday.
Delivering the 34th Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Memorial Lecture at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy here he said externally, the task of securing unsettled boundaries is always an exacting one and that the current generations have direct memories of multiple conflicts also shaping their perception.
Each of these aspects understandably requires an upgraded response, the Union minister said. "Indian society is extremely sensitive to challenges of security, perhaps more than many of its contemporaries. Like the rest of the world, it faces conventional and non-conventional threats of a broad range,” he said in a series of tweets comprising excerpts of his speech.
Law and order issues and even internal security are obviously more complex in a large, pluralistic and diverse polity and the concerns about terrorism are particularly sharp since India has experienced unrelenting violence sponsored from across its borders, he further said.
There are significant concerns as well that are embedded in our increasingly globalised existence. Because they are intrinsic to the engagement with the world, there is no getting away from these problems, he further said.
"When it comes to security, doing more and doing better is no longer enough. India needs doing differently and that means thinking differently. Enhancing security today requires re-imagining," the top diplomat said in another tweet.
Those who spend their lives dealing with national security appreciate that the country’s definition of the term is undergoing a transformation, he opined.
According to him, change is driven by three sets of factors - the impact of globalisation on all societies, the penetration of technology into the daily lives and a more competitive global political scenario.
"What, where, when and how threats emanate is as hard to anticipate as the manner in which we need to respond, protect or counter. We are required to not only deal with a more intricate framework in which threats are assessed, but do so with greater variables," he said.
The very factors that hold so much promise for growth and prosperity are also the source of anxiety in the wrong hands, he said. Jaishankar also tweeted that he visited the Regional Passport Office here.
-With PTI Input
