Fate of national anti-terror body remains uncertain

New Delhi:  After spending an entire day to convince states that the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) as proposed by the Union Home Minister P Chidambaram wouldn't infringe on the powers of the individual states, the Union Home Ministry issued a short press brief claiming "almost all states in principle agreed on the need to have an effective anti-terrorism mechanism like National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC)." And, yet it is clear that the NCTC, the dream project of the Union Home Minister, is unlikely to go through in its present shape and form.

The NCTC is structured to be a pre-emptive anti-terrorist strike task force. It is empowered to demand information from all bodies and organizations across the country, collate such information and carry out stealthy counter terrorist operations on its own without keeping the local government or the local police in the loop till the operation is over. This didn't go done well with the states. Several states including the UPA's ally Mamata Banerjee wrote to the Prime Minister in protest. It forced the government to stop operationalizing the NCTC.

Today's meeting with the Chief Secretary's, Director General of Police and heads of states anti- terror units was aimed at defusing this opposition. The result of consultation, however, seems to be contrary to expectations. States like Bihar and Orissa are understood to have told the Centre that formation of a body as powerful the NCTC without political consultations is unacceptable. They are also understood to have said that the NCTC with unbridled powers to raid, search, seizure and arrest cannot be placed under the Intelligence Bureau which is not accountable before the courts and even out of the purview of the RTI act. BJP ruled Madhya Pradesh has told the Centre that NCTC should be kept separate of the Intelligence Bureau and counter terrorist operations should be carried out jointly with the state police organizations instead of the NCTC carrying out counter-terrorist operations on its own.

And, it is not only non-Congress ruled states that have raised an alarm.  Congress ruled Kerala while accepting the NCTC has pointed out that powers of NCTC and its functioning needs to be clarified as does the role and scope of the local police organizations.

The Union Home Ministry, on the other hand, is understood to have told the states that the Centre is well within its powers to form a body like the NCTC. Union Home Secretary R K Singh is believed to have told the anxious state representatives that Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act as amended in 2008 allows the Centre to have a body that can search, seize and arrest.

Clearly, therefore, the fate of NCTC remains uncertain with neither the Centre nor the states willing to budge.  In the United States, economist Jagdish Bhagwati writes in his book "In Defense of Globalization", tax laws are made very tough to please the Democrats and the loopholes introduced to please republicans. Perhaps this applies to the Centre as well, because hard-nosed politics is better suited to cover nations, not law books.

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