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Journalism of Courage
In a first-of-its-kind coordinated attack on the centre,chief ministers of six non-Congress state governments have slammed the creation of the National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC),claiming that its provisions infringed upon the rights of states.
Chief Ministers Naveen Patnaik of Orissa,Mamata Banerjee of West Bengal,Nitish Kumar of Bihar,Shivraj Singh Chouhan of Madhya Pradesh,Narendra Modi of Gujarat and J Jayalalithaa of Tamil Nadu have written to the Prime Minister asking him to review or withdraw the draconian provisions.
The home ministry,which conceived the NCTC at the top of a new security architecture in the wake of the 2008 Mumbar terror attacks,had notified earlier this month that the new agency would start functioning from March 1. But given the opposition from some of the countrys most powerful CMs,that looks uncertain now.
I must ask you,Sir,to review this order (creating NCTC) which has draconian overtones. The people of our nation are aware of their democratic and federal rights,which at times have to be underlined by state governments to the central government… It would seem that the UPA government at times,knowingly or unknowingly,infringes on those federal rights, Patnaik,who has emerged as leader of the group of six,has written to the PM.
Banerjee,whose Trinamool Congress is the Congresss main partner at the centre,has written,It is difficult for the state government to accept such arbitrary exercise of power by the central government/central agency,which have a bearing on the rights and privileges of the states as enshrined in the Constitution… This order appears to be an infringement on the powers of the state governments in matters of investigation and maintenance of order.
Modi said the notification violated the federal structure and attacked the rights of states,and demanded that the order creating the NCTC be withdrawn.
The CMs anger stems from the fact that states were not consulted while deciding the architecture of the NCTC. Patnaik has asked in his letter,Would it not have been advisable for the union government to have prior consultations with the state governments?
Sources said that at last years chief ministers conference on internal security,some states had objected to the provisions of the proposed NCTC. But their objections were not taken into account,the sources said.
The home ministry,however,maintained that there was no need to consult the states as the NCTC was to operate under existing laws. NCTC is being formed for better coordination among agencies to fight terror better. We are not passing any new legislation. The sections which have been quoted have been on the statute for the past six-seven years, home secretary R K Singh said.
