The Centre on Saturday failed to break the impasse over the National Counter-Terrorism Centre with the Opposition and allies continuing to oppose the proposal.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, however, in his opening remarks at the NCTC meet of chief ministers on Saturday, tried to allay the states’ fears, saying the NCTC was “not a state-versus-Centre issue”. Home minister P. Chidambaram said the NCTC would be “an important pillar in a new security architecture”. He later claimed “many states have supported the anti-terror organisation as some have given qualified support, and three have outrightly rejected it”. Despite the government’s failure to reach consensus, Mr Chidambaram maintained that the executive order to set up NCTC “remains”.
Leading the allies’ charge, West Bengal CM and Trinamul Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee said the NCTC was “not required”. “NCTC will destroy the federal structure as it is contradictory to the federal system,” she said and “urged” the government to withdraw it. NC leader and J&K CM Omar Abdullah, another UPA ally, found NCTC “as stringent as the Armed Forces Special Powers Act”. The CMs of Congress-ruled states, including Assam’s Tarun Gogoi, hinted at a Centre-states “trust deficit”. Manipur CM Ibobi Singh, who skipped the meet, sought safeguards before operationalising the NCTC. However, Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Maharashtra’s Prithviraj Chavan, AP’s Kiran Kumar Reddy and Rajasthan’s Ashok Gehlot supported setting up the NCTC.
Ms Banerjee, along with Gujarat CM Narendra Modi, TN CM J. Jayalalithaa and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, not only rejected the Centre’s move, but, to register their dissent, cited fears of “misuse against political rivals”, “hidden goals” and “deliberate” attempts by the Centre to disturb the federal polity. All three CMs, and about six others, left the NCTC conference after lunch.
UP CM Akhilesh Yadav, who skipped the meet, demanded a rethink in his written speech. Mr Modi accused the Centre of behaving like the “Viceroys of yore”, while Mr Nitish Kumar said it “violates” the principle of federalism. Ms Jayalal-ithaa accused the Centre of showing utter contempt to TN and termed the NCTC meet “infructuous” as long as the NCTC notification was in force. She suggested an alternative: that the Centre form a sub-committee of CMs to look into the issue. Her Orissa counterpart, Mr Naveen Patnaik, endorsed her view and said Ms Jayalalithaa should head the sub-committee.