Amit Shah directs agencies to pre-empt security threats targeting India's 2047 goals

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has directed intelligence and security agencies to adopt a pre-emptive approach that identifies and eliminates threats before they escalate into major crises, linking India's national security preparedness to the country's ambition of becoming a developed nation by 2047.

Speaking at the valedictory session of the Intelligence Bureau's National Security Strategy Conference on Tuesday, Shah called on the forum to study trends over the next 15 to 20 years and develop strategies to counter emerging security challenges. "We have to identify challenges in advance and destroy them before they become major problems," he said, urging the creation of an ecosystem that delivers a secure, infiltrator-free and narcotics-free India.

Border security and illegal immigration

The Home Minister disclosed that he had visited all land-border States over the past eight months and shared a document outlining a four-pronged border security strategy. Announcing the government's aim to make the country "infiltrator-free" in a short period, he said illegal immigrants pose threats to national security, the economy and demographic balance. "This country is not a dharamshala and only citizens of the country have the right to live here," Shah said.

Framing policy around new-age threats

Shah emphasized that India's security policy must be framed keeping in view emerging global challenges, including geopolitical instability, energy and resource insecurity, supply chain disruptions, rising radicalisation and cyber misinformation campaigns. He linked robust internal security directly to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's goal of making India a developed nation by 2047, saying, "If we want to become number one in every field, internal security will have to be strengthened further".

Learning from past failures

The Home Minister criticized previous governments for failing to anticipate problems such as narcotics trafficking, Left-wing extremism and unrest in the Northeast before they became acute, forcing the country to deal with their consequences for decades. He credited State police forces, Central agencies and the Central Armed Police Forces for succeeding in overcoming challenges posed by three major internal security hotspots.

New criminal laws and counter-terror strategy

Shah said the three new criminal laws would be implemented fully within a year. According to him, their implementation would enable criminal cases to be disposed of up to the Supreme Court level within three years and increase conviction rates by 25 per cent. On counter-terrorism, he called for taking the anti-terror framework "Prahar" from a policy document to everyday practice and urged agencies to dismantle "360-degree terrorist networks". He cited the coordinated nationwide action against the Popular Front of India and its subsequent ban as an example of effective Centre-State coordination.

Drug control and technology in policing

Shah asked State police forces to implement the Narcotics Control Vision Document 2026-2029 and work on the three pillars of "Detect, Disrupt and Destroy" to achieve a drug-free India, saying the fight against narcotics could be won only through coordinated action by the Union government and all State governments. Highlighting the role of technology in policing, he said integrated databases linking CCTNS, ICJS, NatGrid and NAFIS had been created, and urged young officers to use artificial intelligence for data integration, analysis and identifying criminal modus operandi to generate actionable intelligence.

The Home Minister added that the government had strengthened mechanisms against fugitive offenders and that around 274 fugitives had been brought back to India from abroad between 2019 and 2026.

Source: The Hindu