Jammu and Kashmir Governor Narinder Nath Vohra on Sunday called for a change in India’s internal security apparatus and said the country had failed to develop a pan-India approach to national security, The Indian Express reported.

He made the statement as he delivered the 12th RN Kao memorial lecture at the headquarters of the Research and Analysis Wing in New Delhi.

Central governments, the governor said, have failed to convince states to share an equal responsibility on the matter. “Time has perhaps come for a dedicated Ministry of National Security Affairs,” The Times of India quoted him as saying. “The Home Ministry is overburdened. National security matters need constant oversight. We must lose no time in establishing a national Ministry of Security Affairs that will guard the country on every front.”

The Jammu and Kashmir governor said there is a lack of cohesion among the different agencies that look after internal security and external security since they report to different ministries. States, Vohra added, were increasingly becoming dependent on central forces to deal with internal security disturbances, and the line between internal and external security threats were getting blurred.

State governments are wrong in their thinking that external and internal security are different matters, Vohra pointed out. “States use the specious argument that they do not have funds for matters of internal security,” he said.

The governor also criticised decisions to deploy central paramilitary forces and the Army to “douse fires”. Using the Army for handling internal conflagrations, Vohra said, is “blunting” the military’s edge as the rules of engagement in such situations are different and require restraint.