New Delhi, June 11
Bharatiya Janta Party's ‘Chanakya’ Amit Shah is credited with the portfolio of the Union Home Ministry after his two successful stints as India's Home Minister. Shah who is one of the key ministers of Prime Minister Narendra Modi since the beginning of the Modi era in Indian Parliament who brought key developments in the ministry and changed the dynamics of the functioning of the MHA.
With his vision and approach of uprooting terrorism, left wing extremism, narcotics and thrust on modernization, Shah stood out in roping in such changes that were never thought of. He is known for his master strokes and as a home minister he not only introduced the much debated Citizenship Amendment Act but also the three new criminal laws that would be applied in the country from July 1.
Known as a stricter for law and order, HM Shah also ensures that the central police forces and central paramilitary forces are headed by officers handpicked. The MHA under Shah for the first time appointed a woman IPS officer Neena Singh to head the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF). The MHA also appointed Rashmi Shukla, as the first woman DGP of Maharashtra.
BW PoliceWorld highlights the work of HM Amit Shah in Modi Cabinet 1.0 and 2.0
Terrorism
Amit Shah with his strongest aide National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval began their groundwork in Jammu and Kashmir to bring in the key change of abrogation of Article 370 which changed the dynamics of Jammu and Kashmir. Once marred with terrorism and known as the terror bed in the country, J&K emerged as the progressive territory.
The incidents of terror attacks, attacks on civilians, grooming innocent Kashmiri youth in terrorism and unrest was brought under tremendous control with the MHA taking power in hands in Kashmir. Shah was not only instrumental in forming the core team that worked on the abrogation of Article 370 but with the aide of intel export Ajit Doval ensured that the new law is applied in a tactful manner without leading to unrest in Kashmir. It was with the dual efforts of Shah and Doval closely monitored by PM Narendra Modi that Article 370 was abrogated and making J&K a union territory directly governed by the MHA, ending the political feud of the local parties and underground leverage to terrorism and unrest.
By appointing their Chief Secretary GC Murmu directly overlooking the administration, the MHA ensured better control on policing and security forces in J&K. The anger among the civilians against the security forces reduced by leaps and bounds when the citizens got chance to understand the functioning of the government. The presence of central agencies like National Investigation Agency increased bringing in direct control on terrorism alongwith other security forces.
NIA registered a total of 68 cases in 2023, covering a wide spectrum of terror related incidents. These encompass 18 Jihadi terror cases in multiple states, 03 cases from J&K, 12 cases of LWE, 07 cases involving terrorist & Organised Criminal activity in Punjab, 05 cases of the Northeast, and 02 cases related to Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN).
The federal probe agency NIA's crackdowns increased across the country. n addition, four terrorist organisations - The Resistance Force (TRF), People's Anti-Fascists Front (PAFF), Jammu & Kashmir Ghanzavi Force (JKGF) and Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF)) - have been banned
Left Wing Extremism
Amit Shah in one of his speeches had said, “Terrorism has ended in the country. Bring PM Modi in power in third term and we will uproot naxalism from this country in just two years”.
Shah gave this statement after doing the ground work on the left wing extremism for more than seven to eights. In his meetings with the DGPs and Home department officials he laid down special emphasis on uprooting left wing extremism. He also showed a straight approach on left wing terrorism and ensured states across the country that are affected by terrorism work in tandem with the Centre on this issues. After this order, the operation against left wing extremism grew by manifolds.
Left Wing Extremism-related violence has declined in the country by 52 per cent and the number of deaths by 69 per cent from 6,035 to 1,868 in 2014-23 compared to 2004-14, according to Union home ministry data. According to home ministry data, LWE incidents have reduced from 14,862 to 7,128 in 2004-14 compared to 2014-23.
As per the MHA details till April, the number of deaths of security personnel due to Left Wing Extremism has declined by 72 per cent from 1,750 in 2004-14 to 485 during 2014-23, while the number of civilian deaths has declined by 68 per cent from 4,285 to 1,383.
The number of districts with incidents of violence was 96 in 2010. This declined by 53 per cent to 45 in 2022. Along with this, the number of police stations reporting violence decreased from 465 in 2010 to 176 in 2022.
In the last five years, more than 5,000 post offices were set up in 90 districts that have Maoist presence or where the ultras were present.
As many as 1,298 banks branches were opened and 1,348 ATMs made operational in the 30 most-affected districts. A total of 4,885 mobile towers were constructed at a cost of Rs 2,690 crore in Naxal-hit areas and 9,356 km roads constructed at a cost of Rs 10,718 crore.
This year, so far 123 Naxalites have been killed, and 136 firearms recovered in 71 encounters in Bastar division and 339 Naxalites have surrendered in the division.
Countering Narcotics
Similar crackdowns were achieved in countering narcotics. HM Amit Shah had noted, “A #DrugsFreeBharat is the greatest gift to our future generations. Our nation is speeding to achieve this goal through the detection of drugs, destruction of drug networks, and detention of culprits while rehabilitating addicts under the leadership of PM Modi”.
According to the data released by the Ministry, during the period 2006 to 2013 the number of cases registered was 1257 in number which shot up by 3 times during 2014-2023 to 3755. The arrests increased by 4 times from 1363 in the 2006-13 period to 5745 in the 2014-23 period. The quantity of seized drugs doubled during the Modi regime to 3.95 lakh kgs from 1.52 lakh kgs seized during 2006-13. The value of seized drugs jumped 30 times during the Modi government to Rs.22,000 crore from Rs.768 crore achieved in the period 2006-13.
The anti-narcotics agencies also destroyed 12 lakh kgs of drugs worth Rs.12,000 crores during the Modi government. Till June 2023, NCB conducted a financial investigation in 23 such cases in which property worth ₹74,75,00,531 was frozen.
As HM, Shah also introduced the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 that amended the Citizenship Act, 1955 by providing an accelerated pathway to Indian citizenship for persecuted religious minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who arrived in India by 2014. Over 300 have been given CAA certificates till May 2024.
The bigger step of changing the criminals laws in the country was lauded by all citizens. Replacing the British time Indian Penal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act with Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, and Bharatiya Sakshya Act that are more citizen centric giving more power to citizens to access justice.
Thrust on Modernization and SMART Policing
HM Shah has been at the forefront of pushing for modernization and upgradation of policing and technology.
Under his leadership, the Inter-Operable Criminal Justice System (ICJS) -- CCTNS got implemented in 99.93% i.e. 16,733 police stations, 22 thousand courts have been connected to e-Court and about 2 crore prisoner data available through e-Prison, 1 crore through e-Prosecution.
More than 17 lakh prosecution data available and more than 17 lakh forensic data from e-forensics. Similarly, the National Automated Fingerprint Identification System (NAFIS) has more than 90 lakh fingerprint records. Under Integrated Monitoring of Terrorism (i-MoT), data of 22 thousand terrorist cases is available for monitoring UAPA registered cases. Data of more than 5 lakh narco-offenders is available under NIDAN, i.e. National Integrated Database on Arrested Narco-Offenders. Data of about 1 lakh human traffickers is available under the National Database of Human Trafficking Offenders (NDHTO). Data of more than 14 lakh alerts is available under Crime Multi Agency Center (Cri-MAC). Data of more than 28 lakh complaints is available on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP). Biometric database of prisoners and information about their visitors is available in the Prison Database. Apart from this, the national level terrorism database of the NIA is also available.
During the G20 summit, the MHA held a special meet on “Crime and Security in the age of NFTs, AI and Metaverse” in Gurugram discussing cyber awareness, identify and report harmful content and render technical assistance for making society cyber-safety.
He regularly holds security review meetings in J&K, Chintan Shivir with Central Armed Police Forces for their needs, modernization, projects etc and also holds Chintan Shivir for MHA to regularly discuss and bring resolutions on counter terrorism, narcotics, extremism, cybercrime to prepare an action plan for the implementation of the "Vision 2047" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
He also envisaged the expansion of National Forensic Science University and opening centres of the same whereby all states can benefit from the latest technology supporting forensic studies and research used for investigations.
HM Amit Shah's background in politics
Shah's role as a home minister is not a first. Shah had been the Home Minister of Gujarat under the CMship of Narendra Modi. He has had a knack of working with police force and central police organizations.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Shah won from the Gandhinagar seat by 7.44 lakh votes, which is one of the highest this election. In 2019 too, he had won with a large margin of 5.5 lakh votes. The Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat was represented in the past by LK Advani.
Shah was born into a Gujarati family in 1964. He joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) at the age of 16. His political journey started early with his joining the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). He soon climbed the ranks and transitioned into mainstream politics in 1987.
Amit Shah also served as chief campaigner and election strategist to stalwarts such as Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani.
In his tenure as the BJP president from 2014 to 2019, the party witnessed significant victories as well as growth across various states.
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