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| Omar joins opposition, questions Union Government | | National Counter Terrorism Agency | | Rustam
jammu, Feb 22: The Congress-dominated UPA Government is under severe attack these days. The nature of the attack can be determined from the fact that almost all the non-Congress parties and almost all the non-Congress Chief Ministers (12 as of now) have joined hands against the Union Government. Their grouse is that the Union Home Minister, backed by all others in the Central Government, is undermining federalism by seeking to set up an anti-terror body, National Counter Terrorism Agency (NCTA), without discussing the issue with them. Their opposition is based on the fact that the Congress-dominated UPA Government wants to locate the NCTA within the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and that the Union Government would use this anti-terror agency against political opponents as it has been misusing the IB.
It was not only the non-UPA formations which have attacked the Union Government and its move. Even those part of the UPA have opposed the move and they till February 22 included Trinamool Congress (TMC) of Chief Minister Mamata Bannerjee and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) of Union Agriculture Minister Shard Pawar. Yesterday, two more UPA constituents jumped onto the bandwagon of those opposing the Union Government's move. They were DMK of K Karunanidhi and National Conference (NC) of Farooq Abdullah. Their stand was the same. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday told media persons that "there has been no discussion between the State Government and the Central Government on the issue of NCTA" and that "Centre-State consultations are needed to put at rest any controversy over setting up of NCTA".
The non-Congress parties and the non-Congress Chief Ministers are not really opposed to anti-terror agency. They want a very strong anti-terror national agency. What they are opposed to is the move of the Central Government to give the powers of investigation and arrest to the proposed agency. They want this agency to be free from the control of the Union Government. It should be an autonomous agency having no power to enter the domain of any state, they say, and add that the State Governments are there to cooperate with this agency subject to the condition that it doesn't interfere with or snatch the powers the police and intelligence agencies exercise in their respective states. They want detailed discussion before the Union Government takes final decision.
After being attacked by several Chief Minister and political parties, including the BJP and the Left, the Prime Minister yesterday explained the government's position on the NCTA. In fact, he wrote a letter to seven Chief Ministers, including Mamata Bannerjee and Naveen Patnaik (Odisha), who have raised concerns regarding the federal structure of the Indian polity. "Primary purpose of the NCTA is to coordinate counter-terrorism efforts across the country as the IB has been doing so far. It is for this reason that the NCTA has been located within the IB and not as a separate organisation," he, among other things, wrote to allay the fears as expressed by the various Chief Ministers.
It is extremely doubtful if the Prime Minister's intervention would click and induce the critics to come on board. It would take time before the supporters and critics of the NCTA could hammer out their differences, which are very serious, and resolve the controversy taking into consideration the larger national interest. Anti-terror agency at the national level is the need of the hour but to make it really effective it is imperative that all the state governments must support it. One must hope and pray that all the Chief Ministers and all the political parties would rise above petty political considerations and work in a manner that helps the country have an effective and result-oriented counter terrorism agency at the earliest. |
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