Editorial
Keeping DGFI out of politics
JS probe body's suggestion must be heeded
A Jatiya Sangsad sub-committee in its probe report on DU campus violence report has suggested that the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI)'s interference in politics should be stopped.
This recommendation is set against the backdrop of the untoward incident of clashes between the members of the armed forces and DU students leading to an outbreak of widespread student violence during the military backed caretaker government in 2007.
This does not come as a revelation since all right minded people have often expressed their disquiet over involvement of DGFI in national politics.
While welcoming the JS body's suggestion, we recall that political governments have been using the DGFI to fulfil their narrow political ends with routine regularity.
The fallout of it has been that the intelligence personnel so used started to believe that they are indispensable to the ruling party and to the business of politics per se.
Even governments coming to power with huge electoral mandate could not desist from resorting to the DGFI, in particular against political opponents.
This use of defence intelligence has never been good either for the political party in question, or for the intelligence organ of the government itself. The practice has impinged on the fundamentals of governance like the very transparency of the elected government in its handling, particularly, of political issues. It also created unnecessary tensions and conflicts in the political sphere and the broader society.
The stated function of the DGFI is to gather intelligence, address any security threat to the nation's sovereignty and provide necessary inputs to the government to that effect. They should never be used for any other purpose beyond their remit.
Given the empirical evidence of adverse impact of defence intelligence service's involvement in politics, it is high time that the government took serious note of the suggestion and disassociate military intelligence from national politics.
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