NCTC Imbroglio

The growing hiatus between non-Congress chief ministers and the Centre on the NCTC issues conspicuously reflects the underbelly of federal structure enshrined in the Constitution of India. The sad part is that despite clarifications from Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P Chidambaram on the role of NCTC as a nodal agency for counter terrorism, the chief ministers have consciously agreed to disagree on the operational points of this new framework. Touted as a draconian enactment by the Centre to encroach upon State powers, many chief ministers like Naveen Patnaik, Mamata Banerjee, Nitish Kumar, J Jayalalitha, and Narendra Modi have raised their concerns that this will act as an autocratic body with boundless powers to supplant state authority on law and orders issues. Now the moot question is whether it's a valid concern over Centre-State relations or a well thought-out collective strategy by non-Congress chief ministers to buckle down UPA by playing the federalism card. Nevertheless, the politics from policy making in India can't be ruled out.

Now come down to brass-tacks. Whether the states can singularly handle modern-day terrorism issues without support from Centre is the big question. The growing instances of terrorist attacks in India including Maoist problems unambiguously suggest that the states are extremely vulnerable to these fringe groups within and from outside the borders of Indian territory. Dealing them with kid gloves as states think is just laughable and a matter of extreme impracticability. The recent incidents like taking hostage of Italian tourists in Odisha and abduction of Alex P Menon, district collector of Sukma (in Chhattisgarh) unfold the menace of Maoist violence in states. What these states have done? Simply, the state administration has surrendered to the demands of Maoists. How long the innocent civilians of this country would pay price for the afflicted state governance?

If the states are so equipped with power to handle these grave issues, then why do they send SOS message to Centre during crisis? Federalism is one issue and handling terrorism with iron fist is another. A zero tolerance policy is only the need of the hour. Despite all political differences the chief ministers must understand that the state police are nowhere close to the desired capability to handle serious security issues like terrorism. Without sufficient and actionable intelligence the state police can't even trace out terrorists, forget about bringing them into justice. So, what's urgently required now a broad consensus among states and the Centre to form a nodal agency like NCTC and work cohesively to act tough against terrorism.