Law soon to rein in IB, RAW: G K Pillai

There is consensus at the official level for such Act

This was revealed by former Union home secretary G K Pillai while delivering a special address at a seminar on “Enabling Intelligence in India: Autonomy, Accountability and Oversight”.

Pillai expressed hope that such a legislation will be introduced in Parliament later this year.

“There is a consensus at the official level in the government on the need for such a legislation and I am hopeful it will be done,” he said.

“I can assure you that your bill is not forgotten or put under the table. There may be some red tapism. But it is being studied,” Pillai told Congress MP Manish Tewari, who had introduced a Bill – The Intelligence Services (Powers and Regulation) Bill, 2011 – in the Lok Sabha in the last session.

Speaking about the objective of such a legislation, Tewari said: “The primary objective of the Bill is that intelligence agencies are legally mandated and to see that they do the task assigned to them.”

Pillai said that the Bill is intended to regulate the functioning and use of power by the Indian intelligence agencies within and outside India and provide for the coordination, control and oversight of such agencies.

However, former national security advisor Brajesh Mishra asserted that “there should be no interference in the functioning of intelligence agencies”. Mishra further said that the India needs desperate support of intelligence agencies to further the interests of the country.

Allaying the fears of the intelligence community that parliamentary oversight mechanism might lead to misuse of intelligence inputs and put some handicap, Tewari pointed out that institutions like Central Intelligent Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation worked efficiently in the United States of America  where there is such Congressional oversight.

He also gave the examples of Russia, Germany and Japan where such mechanisms have not affected the functioning of the intelligence agencies.