It is states vs Centre

Message to Congress from NCTC meet: talks with states must precede,not follow announcements

Message to Congress from NCTC meet: talks with states must precede,not follow announcements

At Saturdays meeting of chief ministers on the proposed National Counter Terrorism Centre NCTC,Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said it is not a Centre versus state issue. But in the manner in which it has played out,the NCTC has become,indeed,just that. And the Centre must take a larger share of the responsibility. On Saturday,chief ministers from UPA allies like Mamata Banerjee,to those from the opposition like J. Jayalalithaa and Narendra Modi,to the Congresss own Tarun Gogoi talked back to the Centre,sharply laying out their concerns about the perceived encroachment by the Centre into states territory,particularly vis-a-vis the anti-terror body. The question,then,is: why did the Centre not conduct such an exercise before May 5,to pave the way for its own big-ticket initiative? Why was this not done before March 1,the date when the NCTC was supposed to have come into operation? Its obvious: on NCTC,as on other contentious policies and issues,the Centres conversation with the states appears to be an afterthought. It follows its own unilateral announcement and the states angry reaction to it. It is not an act of democratic negotiation.

The NCTC impasse mirrors a larger breakdown. On NCTC,the Congress did not just refuse to talk to the states,it also did not work the communication lines at the political centre. Rallying the states would arguably have been far less of an ordeal if it had first persuaded the BJP to climb on board. But it is the Congresss inability or unwillingness,or both,to strike a dialogue with the states that is likely to come back to haunt. Quite simply,the party has failed to acknowledge that,in its new phase,federalism is not just the virtual exorcism of Article 356 from the Centres arsenal. Federalism,today,requires the Centre to engage the states on all major decisions with nation-wide consequences,such as the now still-born NCTC.

Contributing to the Congress-led Centres missteps,was some bad timing. In the run-up to the July presidential election,seen as a test of strength for political forces big and small,any issue can become the trigger for political posturing. Perhaps the Centre should now wait for a new president to be elected before it revives a discussion on NCTC in its present form,or in a new avatar. Many of the states suggestions on Saturday pointed to room for manoeuvre for such a revival. The Centre must learn from the fiasco and wait for the right moment to make a new beginning.