Modi,BJP CMs praise Centres internal security upgrade,positive response

Modi,who a day earlier had gone hammer and tongs against the Centre over the issue of price rise,also praised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,saying his government had been responsive in matters of internal security. Chouhan,said an aide,too thanked both the Prime Minister and the Home Minister for being responsive on internal security even if it was a belated realisation.

Modi praised Chidambaram and Union Home Secretary G K Pillai for having considerably reduced the response time to requests routinely made by states.

Response of the Home Minister and Home Secretary is swift and positive whenever there is a demand from a state, Modi told reporters. He also applauded the Home Ministrys coordinating role on internal security matters. Raman Singh,Chouhan and Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa shared the sentiment on the Centres handling of the internal security situation.

Asked about the sudden change in the BJP mood and praise for the Home Minister and Prime Minister,Raman Singh told The Indian Express: On price rise,we slammed the Union Government yesterday for it is they alone who are to blame for the sky-rocketing prices. On internal security and issues like modernisation of police force,the Home Minister has given a positive response. To the same question,Karnataka Home Minister V S Acharya said that credit should be given where it is due.

Raman Singh had a word of praise for the PM too. There have been follow-up measures on some of the proposals on internal security that we discussed in the last couple of meetings. The Home Minister came to Chhattisgarh. I have been stressing on an integrated action plan on internal security,including Naxalism,and Centre-state cooperation on this,and I can say that we are moving in the right direction, Singh said.

The BJP CMs line of attack on the Centre incidentally was on issues like Centre-State relations and others it considers central to its agenda.

Modi,for instance,wondered how the issue of fake currency notes had found its way into the agenda of the meeting,as it amounted to infringing on the rights of states. In his 15-minute speech,Modi also slammed the Centre for its refusal to give its assent to the Gujarat Control of Organised Crime GUJCOC Bill which has been passed by the state assembly no less than four times and was a replica of the anti-terror Act in place in Congress-ruled states like Maharashtra.

Referring to the Mumbai attacks,Modi also said the time was ripe to build institutional mechanisms so as not to be dependent on external forces for bringing perpetrators of crime to book and added that it was important that the country be strong and perceived to be strong by subversive elements within and outside India.

Chouhan,too,called for a strong state so as to enable it to take action against terrorists like Afzal and Kasab.

Earlier,inaugurating the conference,Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said: Hostile groups and elements operate from across the border to perpetrate terrorist acts in the country. The state of Jammu and Kashmir bears the brunt of the acts of these groups.

He urged the CMs to create Special Intervention Units in their states to enhance the speed and decisiveness of the Quick Response Teams.

States may also like to develop specialised commando forces which could be deployed to act as a deterrent to terrorist acts. I would urge Chief Ministers to make full use of the scheme formulated by the Central government to assist the Special Branches of states in strengthening their intelligence capabilities, the PM said.

He said adequate progress had not been made in areas of insufficient number of policemen and deficiency in training. The figures collected by the Ministry of Home Affairs show that at the end of September 2009,about 3,94,000 of sanctioned posts in state and Union Territory police forces were lying vacant. This constitutes a large proportion about 20 per cent of the total sanctioned strength, he said,urging the CMs to fill these posts early.

Chidambaram referred to the February 4 meeting of terror groups like Lashkar-e-Toiba and Hizbul Mujahideen in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and called these groups dark forces which were implacably opposed to the country. He said they would be defeated whenever confronted.

He said that after a low level of incidents and casualties in Jammu amp; Kashmir in 2009,there has been an increase in the number of attempts to infiltrate militants into India and in the number of encounters on our side of the border.