NCTC: Needless Control towards Centre?
The Congress’ decision to introduce the National Council Terrorism Centre, effective from March 1, has met with severe protests from as many as 13 non-congress ministers and several other experts. ‘Framed’ on the lines of USA’s NCTC, India’s National Centre for Counter Terrorism will directly come under the control of the Information Bureau.
Under the new setup, officers of the Operations Division of the NCTC shall have the power to arrest and search under Section 43A of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, which clearly means more power to the Centre. It is feared that this will result in rendering State Anti-Terrorism Units completely defunct.
In an already complicated Intelligence setup, the NCTC will be the fourth major anti-terrorism body after the NATGRID, NIA and NSG. Even as NATGRID and NIA will function independent of NCTC, one must not forget that every state has its own dedicated counter terrorism units which can become very useful considering terrorism and insurgency are threatening the very roots of democracy in India today.
Emulating the terrorism policies of the west, the proposed NCTC has the power to search and arrest on suspicion, a power that squads like the ATS, CBI or NIA already possess. It is being proposed that if the State Government has gathered substantial information on terrorist activities, it will have to send its data to the NCTC to carry out further operations. Besides stripping counter terrorism agencies of the state of any power, it seems irrational to have so many agencies running around to do the same work.
Following close at the heels of the dialogues about possible censorship of the media, many believe that this is another form of exploitation of federal power by the ruling parties. The rationale behind this new agency needs to be thought out carefully before it is implemented. In an overly bureaucratic structure, it will be excessively hard for India to fight terrorism.
The apparent solution to this problem could be to make NCTC, i.e. if the Congress is not willing to eat the humble pie and stick to its idea of setting up one, which in all probably it might, it is better to make the Department directly answer the PMO on the ‘immediate actions to be taken’ on the basis of the data collected from the State Units. This will also ensure that the Centre and the State Anti-Terrorist policies are working in tandem.
Under the new setup, officers of the Operations Division of the NCTC shall have the power to arrest and search under Section 43A of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, which clearly means more power to the Centre. It is feared that this will result in rendering State Anti-Terrorism Units completely defunct.
In an already complicated Intelligence setup, the NCTC will be the fourth major anti-terrorism body after the NATGRID, NIA and NSG. Even as NATGRID and NIA will function independent of NCTC, one must not forget that every state has its own dedicated counter terrorism units which can become very useful considering terrorism and insurgency are threatening the very roots of democracy in India today.
Emulating the terrorism policies of the west, the proposed NCTC has the power to search and arrest on suspicion, a power that squads like the ATS, CBI or NIA already possess. It is being proposed that if the State Government has gathered substantial information on terrorist activities, it will have to send its data to the NCTC to carry out further operations. Besides stripping counter terrorism agencies of the state of any power, it seems irrational to have so many agencies running around to do the same work.
Following close at the heels of the dialogues about possible censorship of the media, many believe that this is another form of exploitation of federal power by the ruling parties. The rationale behind this new agency needs to be thought out carefully before it is implemented. In an overly bureaucratic structure, it will be excessively hard for India to fight terrorism.
The apparent solution to this problem could be to make NCTC, i.e. if the Congress is not willing to eat the humble pie and stick to its idea of setting up one, which in all probably it might, it is better to make the Department directly answer the PMO on the ‘immediate actions to be taken’ on the basis of the data collected from the State Units. This will also ensure that the Centre and the State Anti-Terrorist policies are working in tandem.
Comments
Post a Comment