It was exactly a year ago (on Feb
19th, 2012) that the political conflagration over the NCTC broke
out, with opposition-ruled states opposing the setting up of the NCTC (National
Counter Terrorism Center), even though they had all “unanimously” voted in
favor of the UAPA in 2009. The NCTC is part and parcel of the UAPA. I call it a
political conflagration because it was just an example of bad politics; keeping
political interests ahead of the country’s. Those were the days when the bogey
of federalism was being bandied about a lot to attack the Center. The NCTC
could not be set up eventually. And today, we have to grapple with another case
of terrorism. Who knows…..if the NCTC had been set up, maybe the “unspecific”
intelligence report we had could have been more specific and the attack
averted.
I am going to reproduce
extensively from my post of that day (“Using
federalism to politicize terror…..”) since I find most of my points
relevant even today. Here goes:
Several CMs – nine or ten at the last count – are “strongly” opposing the
National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC) that has been set up by the Center.
The stated reason for the opposition is that “the states were not consulted”
and that “it impacts the federal structure” as provided in the Constitution.
Since a major terrorism attack has not happened for a little while now, the CMs
have forgotten that India remains under the threat of another attack and that
if the next attack does happen, they would have no place to hide.
When the US enacted its own NCTC (first called Terrorist Threat
Integration Center) after the 9/11 attacks, most Indians said “See how the
Americans fight terror. They take action. We must learn from them”. The NCTC in
the US also cuts across state lines and works in a federal manner under the
control of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. It draws its
officers from the CIA, FBI and Pentagon. It tries to ensure that clues about
potential attacks are not missed because of turf issues. In fact, the 9/11
commission that was set up to understand why the attacks took place at all made
a scathing attack that the US had no clue that the attacks were going to take
place. It was in response to this that the NCTC was set up by George Bush.
The story is no different in India. It is post the 26/11 attacks in
Mumbai (in 2008) that the UAPA was amended in 2009 and the NCTC was sought to
be set up under this act. In the aftermath of the attacks, every political
party supported the amendment, not wanting to appear opposed to a strong
anti-terrorism act. I am presuming that the amendment would have gone through
rounds of debate in Parliament. Every political party – including of course the
BJP and the BJD – had the chance to think about federalism at that point in
time. Why did they choose to support the amendment then?
Our politicians have to recognize that terrorism is a new threat the
world is facing. Terrorism in the current international form has been around
for maybe only a couple of decades or so. When the Constitution was written in
1950, the writers had no clue that this sort of terrorism would come around one
day. The Constitution thus kept law and order in the state list. There is a
need today to change that. Law and Order for normal criminal activity can well
remain in the state list. However, the law and order related to terrorist
activities should be taken out of the state list and put under the Central
list.
Fighting terror requires a unified response. Out here, we have a
situation when even normal criminals take advantage of the turf fight between
states. There are so many cases when two state police forces cannot coordinate
their actions to nab the culprit. Just look at the politicization of the fight
against the Maoists. Again, the Central government can do pretty much nothing
except request the states to up the ante. Because all states don’t coordinate
their efforts, Maoist attackers often jump across from one state to another to
escape their capture. Most of the Maoist affected states are poor and don’t
even have the sophisticated arms and the trained forces required to take on the
Maoists. And yet, when the Center wanted to plan a bigger offensive, it had to
tamp it down under similar excuses – that law and order is a state subject. The
next time a Maoist attack happens, lets all wring our hands in anger and shame
and despair. And let’s make more political attacks on each other.
Terrorists have become extremely sophisticated. As the attack on Mumbai
showed, the terrorists came equipped with satellite phones, modern weaponry and
the backing of foreign nations and their intelligence agencies. The attack on
the Israeli diplomat’s wife in Delhi recently shows that India can get drawn
into a conflict in which it is not even a party. Are we to say that the Delhi
Police alone should investigate the probe? And if the biker who supposedly
planted the bomb on the diplomat’s car came from say Gujarat or Maharashtra,
then the Delhi police must go through the bureaucracy of talking to the state
police, no matter how much time it takes? How can terrorism be prevented this
way?
The NCTC also doesn’t need the approval of the states. That approval
was already taken when the UAPA was amended in 2009. The states had their
chance then. Why are they creating a problem now? And what is it that the
states are really worried about? Why are they really opposing the NCTC? It’s
the power of “search and seizure” that passes onto the central government under
which the NCTC will operate. The states are worried that the NCTC will be used
by the Congress to browbeat them. If this is the only issue, it can be resolved
by better defining the occasions on which the Center can intervene. The UAPA is
very specific in defining terrorist organizations – it lists 32 such
organizations in its schedule.
The real truth is that we
have wasted a year because of the kind of politics we practice in the country.
Even a sensitive subject like the NCTC got politicized. Today Hyderabad was
attacked. Tomorrow it could be any other city. Our intelligence set-up remains
weak. We remain vulnerable. It’s time we raise our voice against such politics.
And demand that the NCTC be set up immediately.
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