India fine-tuning its maritime security

With the appointment of Vice Admiral (retd) G Ashok Kumar as India’s first national maritime security coordinator (NMSC) to strengthen the maritime security, India has now stepped in to safeguard its boundaries in the waters where the security grid had weakened over time due to the lack of coordination between various stakeholders. It was in the absence of synchronization earlier that even led to the Mumbai Attacks, but, since then the country has been working on strengthening the maritime security grid, now stamped with the appointment of the NMSC.
NMSC will basically act as a coordinating agency, the need of which was mentioned in the report of the Group of Ministers formed after the Kargil War—however, since then there was no headway in that. Even in 2008, after the Mumbai Attacks, the Ministry of Defence had proposed the creation of the same, acting as an institutional linkage between the stakeholders, but it was not paid heed to and the file was kept pending.
However, now with the appointment of the NMSC, India has in a way upgraded its security grid from all sides with the NMSC acting as coordinating agency between the navy and coast guards guarding the country’s borders in deep waters. At the same time, the move can be a message to other powers that are busy showing their dominance in the sea, particularly, the role of China in the South China Sea. The move of strengthening the maritime security can also be a strong reply to Dragon amid its increased activities in the sea where time and again matters see a sudden escalation.
The move of fine-tuning the maritime security can also be important in countering Pakistan’s activities deep in the sea and plugging the loopholes, if any, in the security grid to prevent incidents like Mumbai Attacks, even though the country has a coastline of only over 7,500 km.
All in all, the clearance of appointing the NMSC—who has to report directly to the NSA Ajit Doval—is also indicative of the fact that the country faces equal security threats from the sea as it faces on land, particularly from Pakistan in the north and China on the other side and the time has come to counter such threats as well with NMSC being the first step in that direction.