No consensus on NCTC in CM’s meet; Manish Tewari says Modi wants POTA and TADA back
Nation 11:34
New Delhi, June 7: Even a watered-down proposal for anti-terror hub NCTC could not satisfy non-Congress states, as they strongly opposed its setting up, while the Centre warned them that the country will have to pay a price if it does not come into existence.
On the other hand Information and Broadcasting minister Manish Tewari said that Gujrat chief minister Narendra Modi wants to bring back draconian laws like POTA and TADA.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari on Wednesday hit out at Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi saying he had turned the conference of Chief Ministers on national security into a platform for scoring political points.
"I think it is extremely unfortunate that the meeting of the Chief Ministers on National Security convened after the most reprehensible outrage which has taken place in Chhattisgarh, was turned into a platform for political grandstanding by the Chief Minister of a west Indian state," Tewari said.
"Shorn of rhetoric and hyperbola, I don't think there was anything substantial which was articulated," he said while responding to a question.
Speaking on the issue of creation of National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), he said a decision had to be taken on whether there was a need for setting up of a preventive mechanism.
"I think fundamentally you need to take a call, are you going to continue bleeding from terrorist incidents or are you going to create an instrument of preemption - the National Counter Terrorism Centre - the amended draft took the concerns of states on board. Therefore it has addressed to a very large extent, the critique which was articulated earlier," he said.
"And, if you are going to allow an instrument of preemption and prevention to be sacrificed at the altar of politicking, then I am afraid the citizen should know that there are certain people who are prepared to allow India to bleed because of their politicking," he said.
At the conference of Chief Ministers, convened to discuss internal security issues, skipped by Jayalalithaa and Mamata Banerjee, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik attacked the propsal as infringing on the principles of federalism.
They felt the idea was to essentially to create a "federal police" which is an "alien" concept to the country.
Stung by the crticism, Finance Minister P Chidambaram, the architect of NCTC, said the opposition to the idea was "unfortunate, wrong and deeply regrettable" and that the country will have to pay a price from time to time if it does not come into existence.
After Sushilkumar Shinde took over as Home Minister from Chidambaram, changes were made in the wake of the opposition from non-Congress Chief Ministers to make NCTC acceptable to them.
Among the changes proposed were that NCTC would be taken out of the ambit of IB, its operations would be conducted in consultation with state governments and the central government would send special forces only with the consent of states.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa slammed the Centre for the 'ham-handed manner' in which it sought to set up NCTC and alleged the UPA government was increasingly taking unilateral steps and creating top-down structures and parallel authorities that encroach upon the constitutional domain of state governments.
Referring to the proposed NCTC, Chief Minsiter of Odisha Naveen Patnaik said no direct or indirect interference in the state's autonomy will be "tolerated" and federal rights should be "respected and protected. He said though the central government made "some changes suggested by us in the proposed NCTC, all the issues have still not been addressed".
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh, Madhya Pradesh's Shivraj Singh Chouhan, West Bengal's Mamata Banerjee and Bihar's Nitish Kumar too criticised the Centre's move saying it was against the federal structure of country.
Commenting on Modi's statement that the country lacks a strong anti-terror law, Chidambaram said UAPA has adequate provisions to deal with terror cases but what the country needed was instruments like NCTC to implement the law.
"He (Modi) wants an anti-terror law or strengthening of anti-terror law. Actually, he wants to bring back TADA and POTA. Why did not he say so...that I want POTA back. The Congress party is opposed to POTA, the UPA is opposed to POTA," he said.
The Chhattisgarh Chief Minister said NCTC should be ratified by Parliament to make it responsible and answerable to people.
Singh said NCTC should not be given powers similar to that envisaged in the NIA Act among others by allowing it to probe terror related cases without state's consent.
"We are opposed to NCTC in its present state. We want that if NCTC comes into existence, it should respect the federal structure of our Constitution. The participation of states in NCTC should not get reflected only on paper," he said.
Holding that the revised draft order of NCTC suffers from several "serious flaws" and "arbitrary" provisions, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar asked the Centre to seek Parliament's nod through a wider debate for creating the federal anti-terror agency.
"Firstly, what is the use of creating an operation division within NCTC and giving powers of conducting such operations, if such operations are to be conducted either through or in conjunction with state police"?, he said.
Mamata Banerjee said "like many other states, West Bengal too is of the opinion that the proposed version of NCTC upsets the federal structure of the country".
Earlier, inaugurating the conference, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Naxal violence has no place in a democracy and the Centre and state governments must work together to deal with the "very grave threat" posed by Maoists.
Condemning the recent Naxal attack in Chhattisgarh, he asked states to come up with some concrete measures to deal with the threat. Singh said time has come to view the challenges of terrorism, communal violence and Left Wing Extremism in a holistic manner, rising above narrow, political and ideological divides.
Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde blamed Pakistan for trying to revive Sikh militancy and said youth are being trained in ISI facilities to carry out terror attacks in the country.
He said there have been significant developments on the Sikh militancy front and its commanders based in Pakistan are under pressure from ISI to further the Pakistani intelligence agency's terror plans not only in Punjab but also other parts of India.
On the other hand Information and Broadcasting minister Manish Tewari said that Gujrat chief minister Narendra Modi wants to bring back draconian laws like POTA and TADA.Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari on Wednesday hit out at Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi saying he had turned the conference of Chief Ministers on national security into a platform for scoring political points.
"I think it is extremely unfortunate that the meeting of the Chief Ministers on National Security convened after the most reprehensible outrage which has taken place in Chhattisgarh, was turned into a platform for political grandstanding by the Chief Minister of a west Indian state," Tewari said.
"Shorn of rhetoric and hyperbola, I don't think there was anything substantial which was articulated," he said while responding to a question.
Speaking on the issue of creation of National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), he said a decision had to be taken on whether there was a need for setting up of a preventive mechanism.
"I think fundamentally you need to take a call, are you going to continue bleeding from terrorist incidents or are you going to create an instrument of preemption - the National Counter Terrorism Centre - the amended draft took the concerns of states on board. Therefore it has addressed to a very large extent, the critique which was articulated earlier," he said.
"And, if you are going to allow an instrument of preemption and prevention to be sacrificed at the altar of politicking, then I am afraid the citizen should know that there are certain people who are prepared to allow India to bleed because of their politicking," he said.
At the conference of Chief Ministers, convened to discuss internal security issues, skipped by Jayalalithaa and Mamata Banerjee, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik attacked the propsal as infringing on the principles of federalism.
They felt the idea was to essentially to create a "federal police" which is an "alien" concept to the country.
Stung by the crticism, Finance Minister P Chidambaram, the architect of NCTC, said the opposition to the idea was "unfortunate, wrong and deeply regrettable" and that the country will have to pay a price from time to time if it does not come into existence.
After Sushilkumar Shinde took over as Home Minister from Chidambaram, changes were made in the wake of the opposition from non-Congress Chief Ministers to make NCTC acceptable to them.
Among the changes proposed were that NCTC would be taken out of the ambit of IB, its operations would be conducted in consultation with state governments and the central government would send special forces only with the consent of states.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa slammed the Centre for the 'ham-handed manner' in which it sought to set up NCTC and alleged the UPA government was increasingly taking unilateral steps and creating top-down structures and parallel authorities that encroach upon the constitutional domain of state governments.
Referring to the proposed NCTC, Chief Minsiter of Odisha Naveen Patnaik said no direct or indirect interference in the state's autonomy will be "tolerated" and federal rights should be "respected and protected. He said though the central government made "some changes suggested by us in the proposed NCTC, all the issues have still not been addressed".
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh, Madhya Pradesh's Shivraj Singh Chouhan, West Bengal's Mamata Banerjee and Bihar's Nitish Kumar too criticised the Centre's move saying it was against the federal structure of country.
Commenting on Modi's statement that the country lacks a strong anti-terror law, Chidambaram said UAPA has adequate provisions to deal with terror cases but what the country needed was instruments like NCTC to implement the law.
"He (Modi) wants an anti-terror law or strengthening of anti-terror law. Actually, he wants to bring back TADA and POTA. Why did not he say so...that I want POTA back. The Congress party is opposed to POTA, the UPA is opposed to POTA," he said.
The Chhattisgarh Chief Minister said NCTC should be ratified by Parliament to make it responsible and answerable to people.
Singh said NCTC should not be given powers similar to that envisaged in the NIA Act among others by allowing it to probe terror related cases without state's consent.
"We are opposed to NCTC in its present state. We want that if NCTC comes into existence, it should respect the federal structure of our Constitution. The participation of states in NCTC should not get reflected only on paper," he said.
Holding that the revised draft order of NCTC suffers from several "serious flaws" and "arbitrary" provisions, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar asked the Centre to seek Parliament's nod through a wider debate for creating the federal anti-terror agency.
"Firstly, what is the use of creating an operation division within NCTC and giving powers of conducting such operations, if such operations are to be conducted either through or in conjunction with state police"?, he said.
Mamata Banerjee said "like many other states, West Bengal too is of the opinion that the proposed version of NCTC upsets the federal structure of the country".
Earlier, inaugurating the conference, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Naxal violence has no place in a democracy and the Centre and state governments must work together to deal with the "very grave threat" posed by Maoists.
Condemning the recent Naxal attack in Chhattisgarh, he asked states to come up with some concrete measures to deal with the threat. Singh said time has come to view the challenges of terrorism, communal violence and Left Wing Extremism in a holistic manner, rising above narrow, political and ideological divides.
Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde blamed Pakistan for trying to revive Sikh militancy and said youth are being trained in ISI facilities to carry out terror attacks in the country.
He said there have been significant developments on the Sikh militancy front and its commanders based in Pakistan are under pressure from ISI to further the Pakistani intelligence agency's terror plans not only in Punjab but also other parts of India.
Posted by Unknown
on 11:34.
Filed under
