• Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), a day after the terrorist attack in Jammu & Kashmir’s Pahalgam left 26 people dead.

• Besides the Prime Minister, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar were present at the meeting, along with National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and senior bureaucrats.

• On April 22, terrorists armed with automatic assault weapons shot dead 26 tourists including a Nepali citizen.

• During the meeting, Shah briefed the Prime Minister on the attack and discussed the measures to be taken in its aftermath.

• The CCS resolved that the perpetrators of the Pahalgam attack would be brought to justice and their sponsors held to account.

What is a Cabinet Committee?

• Cabinet Committees are extra-constitutional, meaning, they are not mentioned in the Indian Constitution. 

• Cabinet Committee is a group of ministers which can take collective decisions that are binding across various ministries/departments. They are partly designed to reduce the burden on the Union Cabinet by allowing smaller groups of ministers to take decisions on specific policy areas. 

• The Cabinet Committees are constituted or reconstituted when a new government takes over or the Cabinet undergoes a reshuffle.

• The Prime Minister constitutes Standing Committees of the Cabinet and sets out the specific functions assigned to them.

• The Cabinet Secretariat is responsible for the administration of the Government of India (Transaction of Business) Rules, 1961 and the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules 1961, facilitating smooth transaction of business in ministries/departments of the government.

• This Secretariat provides secretarial assistance to the Cabinet and its Committees, and also assists in decision making in government by ensuring inter-ministerial coordination, ironing out differences amongst ministries/departments and evolving consensus through the instrumentality of the standing/ad hoc committees of secretaries. Through this mechanism new policy initiatives are also promoted.

Cabinet Committee on Security

The Cabinet Committee on Security is the country’s highest decision-making body on security affairs. 

Functions of the Cabinet Committee on Security include:

• Deal with all defence related issues.

• Deal with issues relating to law and order, and internal security.

• Deal with policy matters concerning foreign affairs that have internal or external security implications including cases relating to agreements with other countries on security related issues.

• Deal with economic and political issues impinging on national security.

• Review the manpower requirements relating to national security including proposals concerning creation of posts carrying the pay scale or pay band plus grade pay equivalent to that of a joint secretary to the government of India and higher, and setting up new structures to deal with security related issues.

• Deal with all matters relating to atomic energy.

Members of the Cabinet Committee on Security:

The Cabinet Committee on Security comprises of: 

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi 

• Defence Minister Rajnath Singh 

• Home Minister Amit Shah 

• Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman 

• External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar.

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