Answer

Raman, as a senior IPS officer, faces the critical challenge of balancing utilitarian ethics—ensuring the greatest good for public safety—while upholding deontological ethics, particularly the duty to protect individual rights. He is tasked with tackling youth unemployment and preventing radicalization. This  requires addressing the root causes with distributive justice, ensuring fair opportunities while implementing procedural justice to maintain lawfulness.

Key Stakeholders Involved and Their Interests

1. Options Available to Raman to Tackle the Situation

• Strengthening Cyber Surveillance: Enhancing the capabilities of the Cyber Cell by incorporating cyber-ethics principles such as ethical hacking and surveillance ethics is critical for monitoring and intercepting communications between terrorist recruiters and potential recruits on social media.
  For example: Targeted surveillance on Telegram has been effective in identifying terror-linked conversations, preventing attacks in real-time.
• Community Policing Initiatives: Launching community policing initiatives rooted in the ethics of care and social contract theory supported by procedural justice theory, which involve community leaders in reporting suspicious activities, strengthens local resilience to radicalization and enhances trust between law enforcement and vulnerable communities.
  For instance: The National Police Commission Reports emphasise building trust through community policing to foster social harmony and reduce radicalization.
• Counter-radicalization Workshops: Conducting educational workshops utilising cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) to address the psychological factors leading to radicalization is vital. This method helps reduce the false beliefs that support extremist ideas.
• Legal Enforcement and Coordination with National Agencies: Applying just war theory and proportionality doctrine, the use of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), 1967 to legally detain suspects ensures that the response to terrorism is justifiable and proportional to the threat.
• Promotion of Employment Opportunities: Promoting employment opportunities as a preventive strategy draws on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, addressing self-actualization and security needs that radicalised youth seek. Focusing on economic stability reduces vulnerability to extremist ideologies.
  For example: Kerala’s State Youth Welfare Board provides employment programs, offering vulnerable youth opportunities for meaningful engagement.
• Psychological Assistance Programs: Introducing psychodynamic counselling and resilience training to vulnerable youth addresses the deeper psychological needs that often lead individuals to join extremist groups. Promoting emotional intelligence (EI) helps individuals resist extremist ideologies.

1. Measures to Strengthen the Existing Setup

• Robust Legal Framework: Amending state laws through the lens of preventive justice to allow preemptive actions against radicalization ensures public safety while maintaining a utilitarian approach to legal interventions, drawing inspiration from POTA
• Inter-Agency Collaboration: Establishing a collaborative task force between the CID, Cyber Cell, and intelligence agencies based on systems theory ensures a holistic and integrated approach to countering radicalization, reducing operational silos.
  For example: The Special Cell of Delhi Police uses inter-agency collaboration for better intelligence sharing, enhancing national security efforts.
• Enhanced Training for Law Enforcement: Implementing training programs rooted in ethical policing frameworks and virtue ethics, developed in collaboration with Bureau of Police Research and Development, equips officers with the ethical sensitivity to handle radicalization cases without infringing on civil liberties.
• Community Outreach Programs: Strengthening relationships with community leaders through programs inspired by communitarian ethics and stakeholder theory promotes inclusive dialogue, enabling collective responsibility in preventing radicalization.
  For example: The community policing model in Kashmir emphasises collaboration between law enforcement and local communities to prevent extremism.
• Social Media Regulations and Monitoring: Collaborating with IT companies to regulate extremist content on social media platforms using digital ethics and deontological ethics ensures the responsible use of technology for public safety, inspired by GDPR models in the European Union.
• Economic Development Initiatives: Economic programs modelled after Amartya Sen’s capability approach promote local entrepreneurship and skill development, reducing the economic vulnerabilities that can lead to radicalization.
  For example: The Skill India Campaign has significantly helped reduce unemployment, a key driver of radicalization in youth.

1. Action Plan to Enhance Intelligence Gathering

• Integration of Technology in Intelligence: Utilising predictive policing software, artificial intelligence (AI), and Big Data analytics to analyse patterns and identify potential recruits follows the principles of technological determinism, shaping proactive counter-terrorism strategies.
• Human Intelligence Network: Building a human intelligence network (HUMINT) using principles of distributive justice ensures that informants are protected and rewarded for their contributions while maintaining their anonymity in vulnerable communities.
  For example: Kashmir’s effective HUMINT networks have played a key role in preventing terror attacks by gathering local intelligence.
• Regular Training and Workshops: Conducting regular training workshops for police officers using scenario-based learning and ethical leadership models helps them stay updated on emerging threats and ethical challenges in intelligence gathering.
  For instance: Intelligence Bureau workshops provide law enforcement with the latest methodologies for handling radicalization cases.
• Collaboration with International Agencies: Partnering with global agencies (like INTERPOL) and employing collective security doctrine enhances intelligence-sharing networks, providing crucial insights into transnational terror networks.
• Public Reporting Channels: Establishing public hotlines based on procedural fairness ensures citizens can report suspicious activities anonymously, reinforcing the ethical balance between surveillance and individual rights.
  For example: The National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal allows citizens to report suspicious terror-related activities, enhancing local intelligence capabilities.
• Data Analytics Units: Creating specialised data analytics units that apply data triangulation and predictive analytics principles helps process vast data volumes, identifying patterns of radicalization and recruitment efforts.
  For instance: The National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) enables data collection and analysis from multiple government databases to track terror-related activities.
• Legal Support for Surveillance: Ensuring that all surveillance efforts follow judicial review and rule of law principles as mandated by the Puttaswamy Judgment ensures that surveillance activities respect privacy rights while effectively tackling radicalization.

Raman’s strategy must ensure a balance between national security and the protection of individual rights, fostering trust and social harmony. As it is said, “Security must be ensured, but never at the cost of justice.” A comprehensive approach addressing both radicalization and socio-economic disparities will ensure long-term peace and stability.

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