The one-day meeting between Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh, Home Minister P Chidambaram and the Chief Ministers,
representing virtually all the major political parties, was held in New Delhi
The opposition to it in the present form
leaves the federal government with no option but to go back to the drawing board
to redraft the NCTC, probably give it a new name. It will have to prune some
powers of the proposed body and, in all possibilities, remove it from the ambit
of the Intelligence Bureau (IB).
With chief ministers strongly opposed to
the NCTC in its current form, the Home Ministry has no option but to remove the
antiterror body outside IB and to have a mechanism for mandatory coordination
between central agencies and state police forces.
Home Minister P Chidambaram made it
abundantly clear that his ministry would work on removing the biggest hurdle in
forming the anti-terror body in his concluding remarks at the chief ministers’
conference that were released officially on May 6.
Emerging
Key Sticking Issues
Two key sticking issues emerged after the
meeting. One that the anti-terror body should not be under the control of IB.
Two, the counter-terror body - in whatever shape it is formed - should not
carry out independent operations in states.
The NCTC, an anti-terror body proposed by
the Union Ministry of Home Affairs on February 3, is not acceptable to chief
ministers in its present form.
The states which did not agree on the
NCTC in its present form include a couple of Congress-ruled states, all
BJP-ruled states and the states ruled by regional parties like the Akali Dal in
Punjab, the National Conference (Jammu and Kashmir), the Trinamool Congress
(West Bengal), the Biju Janata Dal (Odisha) and the AIADMK (Tamil Nadu). Many
chief ministers questioned the logic of putting the NCTC under the IB.
Possible
Options
One of the possible options is splitting
the work of the NCTC-type body. A counter- terror body with central command
could have access to IB databases on suspects, informers, friends of suspects
and financiers for analysis. Operations could be handed over to the National
Investigative Agency (NIA) formed after the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. Since
the NIA was formed under an act of Parliament, Chief Ministers would have no
objections to it.
The second contentious issue is of having
only joint operations of central forces and state police forces. The chief
ministers, even those of Congress and UPA allies-ruled states, made it clear
that the NCTC type-body could not carry out independent operations -- arrests
or detentions of suspects -- in states without prior information to the state
DGP.
One of the options being studied is the
possibility of forming small nodes of the NCTC type-body in states. These would
have a dedicated unit of the state police force attached with the central
agency team. As most state capitals already have a small central agency team,
staffing the nodes would not be problem.
The joint team would be kept in the loop
on all information and would simultaneously keep the state DGP informed.
Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was among those who suggested
joint training of state and central forces at the meeting.
Instrument
of Subversion
When Manmohan Singh says the NCTC is not
meant for facilitating the federal government’s intrusion into the domain of
the State Governments and Chidambaram seeks to allay the States’ apprehensions
that this is yet another instrument of subversion of the Constitution, they do
so in the hope of softening the tough stand taken by the chief ministers,
especially of those States where the Congress is not in power. But the fact
that their protestations have failed to move hearts and minds reaffirms, though
not for the first time, what has been known for long now: Neither commands credibility.
There can be an endless debate on the
need for an over-arching Central authority to deal with counter-terrorism
across States. Those who argue in favor of the proposed NCTC have made points
that cannot be entirely ignored. However, those opposed to the idea of erecting
such a super-structure have raised issues that cannot be brushed aside. But
much of the debate has been based on theoretical precepts that are borrowed
from others’ experiences and are not necessarily rooted in the Indian reality.
As Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi says, a robust, well-trained and
well-equipped local police force is the best weapon to counter terrorism; after
all, it is the local policeman who is, and shall remain, the first respondent.
Second, to nibble away at the States’ constitutional rights, in this case
maintenance of law and order, can never be acceptable, more so when the
intentions of the federal government are questionable.
Pleas and
Assurances
Undoubtedly, it is not a positive sign that
despite the prime minister and the home minister’s impassioned pleas and
assurances to dissenting states, the deadlock between the federal government
and some states on the setting up of the NCTC could not be resolved. This
should not, however, come as a surprise because the 10 dissenting states had
made their stand clear beforehand. While most of the dissenters were
non-UPA-ruled states and had a stake in keeping the pot boiling, the steadfast
opposition of Trinamool Congress’s Mamata Banerjee and to a lesser degree Mulayam
Singh Yadav and Omar Abdullah cannot but be deemed to be a blow to the Congress
which spearheaded the move to set up the NCTC.
The scathing criticism of the federal
government on the issue by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa was along
expected lines but while it was reassuring to the opposition, it was a reminder
for the Congress that it was up against a wall.
However, the Manmohan Singh government, on
its part, merely restated its earlier position and made no efforts to address
the specific provisions which the dissenting states were objecting to. For
instance, the argument that the NCTC would undermine the states’ police powers
was denied by both the prime minister and the home minister but there was no
indication that the Centre was prepared to clothe the state police with greater
powers to deal with terrorists while building up the NCTC as an apex body to
coordinate action.
Assessment
Clearly, some of states chief ministers do not
sufficiently appreciate the sophisticated features of international terrorism
which has targeted India for three decades; its reach, resources and swiftness
of mobility of its deadly practitioners who flit across boundaries; the
ultra-modern nature of communications and fighting equipment it employs; and
the enormous funds at its disposal, not to mention ideological, political and
occasionally ground-level support that becomes available to it. All of this was
encapsulated in the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.
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