Vice-president wants standing committee on intelligence

NEW DELHI: Stressing on the need for an oversight mechanism for the intelligence services so as to make them more accountable, vice-president Hamid Ansari on Tuesday proposed the setting up of a parliamentary standing committee on intelligence.

“There is no reason why a democratic system like ours should not have a standing committee of Parliament on intelligence....since internal security and external do not in our system report to the same minister, the possibility of entrusting their work to the standing committee on home affairs may not meet the requirement,” Mr Ansari noted while delivering the R N Kao Memorial Lecture organised by the Research and Analyses Wing here.

Citing the oversight mechanisms in place in the US, where two congressional committees keep track of intelligence functioning, and the UK, which has the intelligence and security committee of Parliament, Mr Ansari said even the Indian intelligence agencies should “make public their mission statement outlining periodically their strategic intent, vision, mission, core values and their goals.”

While throwing up the ideas of either a periodic executive review of the mission statement or statutory definition of the function of intelligence agencies, the vice-president also suggested greater openness with regard to history of intelligence institutions.