By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
Patna: In the wake of shameful failures of our intelligence agencies resulting in deadly terror attacks one after another in last 10 years, the idea of a central platform of intelligence gathering had come up three years back after the gruesome 26/11 Mumbai attacks. The idea has now taken a shape of National Counterterrorism Centre, but about a dozen states are vehemently opposing NCTC undermining the need of a federal structure to combat unprecedented menace – terrorism.
However, the opposition of NCTC seems more a whipping against Home Minister P. Chidambaram and Congress-led UPA government and to settle scores. Or they see NCTC as a political tool in coming days, and so they are scared. One comes to this seeing the behavior of the very state governments when people, most of the time Muslims, were and are being picked in terror cases.
Hundreds of Muslim youths have been picked from states without informing the concerned government or police but never any state objected to sweeping powers of anti-terrorism squad of different states. They came and picked their target and flew to Delhi or Mumbai – in most of the cases. In majority of cases, they did not inform the state police or local police, yet none raised this issue of clear violation of laws.
The states opposing NCTC include Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Orissa, West Bengal, Punjab etc.
The blatant violation of laws was committed by the special cell of Delhi Police last week when they picked an elderly person Kafeel Ahmed in Darbhanga district of Bihar without informing the SP or even local police. People thought it was a kidnapping and informed the local police which promptly started chasing the vehicle of Delhi police sleuths. It was only then that the sleuths told the local police station in-charge about the arrest.
Without any official federal structure to combat terror, alleged suspects were being picked from anywhere by any police or intelligence agencies and there was no hue and cry, maybe because the victims were Muslims, but now when the central government is bringing a formal structure with more powers over state police, it is being opposed. The reason is simple. They fear NCTC could turn out to be a weapon in the hands of central government which can use it against political opponents in states. What name should one give to this behavior of the states?
However, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has got a reason to strengthen his opposition of the NCTC.
Speaking in the assembly on the occasion of thanksgiving on the governor’s address to the budget session of the House on 23rd Feb., Nitish opposed NCTC and gave example (Darbhanga case) why he is opposing it.
“The setting up of the NCTC is an infringement on the federal rights of the states by curtailing their policing power,” he said. “The Prime Minister has pleaded that it was the Intelligence Bureau (IB) that was formulating the NCTC and as such there is nothing to fear about the federal power of the states. But it is hardly convincing as the central intelligence agencies are in the habit of picking up people from the states without taking the state’s police into confidence,” Nitish has been quoted as saying in the media.
He further said that rules ask central agencies to take the local police into confidence while carrying out raids or making arrests in the states. They are also supposed to present the arrested person/persons in the nearest court. “But the central agencies were indulging in objectionable acts even without the NCTC. What will they do when they are armed with NCTC?” he asked.
He also criticised the central security agencies for coining the “Darbhanga module” or “Bihar module” of terrorism and said it is highly objectionable. “How can a responsible agency describe a particular region or a community or a state as a module of terror?” he asked.