New Delhi:
The Prime Minister has given in to a demand for a special meeting of all Chief Ministers to discuss the controversial National Counter Terror Centre (NCTC). Dr Singh will attend that meeting on May 5, amid accusations that his government is undermining federalism.
Before that, Home Minister P Chidambaram will meet the CMs on April 16 at a conference on internal security, and NCTC is on the agenda, but various CMs have made clear that they want a separate meeting on the proposed anti-terror organization. Among them UPA ally and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and most recently, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, who wrote to the PM yesterday saying the April 16 discussion was not enough.
Ms Banerjee and Ms Jayalalithaa are among a group of Chief Ministers who have written to the PM with ferocious critiques of the NCTC. They say the new counter-terror agency would trespass into state turf, and therefore violates the country's federal structure. Mamata Banerjee pushed for and got a promise in Parliament from the Prime Minister that his government would make no further move on the NCTC till April 16 with the Home Minister, who has passionately advocated the need for the anti-terror organization and has sought to allay the fears of 10 Chief Ministers who have been vocal in their opposition by assuring them that the government intends to work with states on battling terrorism.
Today, Mr Chidambaram said, "following the request of three CMs, the CMs conference on internal security will take up issue of NCTC...the April 16 meet will be on a pre-decided agenda. NCTC will be discussed separately in a special meet on May 5."
The Budget session of Parliament would have resumed by then and the government's willingness now to accede to the demand for such a meeting would no doubt also be rooted in the fact that allies like Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress have been drifting away and that the Opposition has tactically aligned itself with them on issues like NCTC. The PM, sources said, would attempt to find common ground on the contentious NCTC.
In her letter to the PM yesterday, Ms Jayalalithaa objected to what she called an attempt to steamroll the NCTC into existence, by seeking to discuss the NCTC along with other issues on April 16. She demanded that the Centre meet all CMs only to discuss the NCTC. "It is surprising that, against this background, a meeting of Chief Ministers has been convened on the 16th of April 2012, to discuss various matters relating to Internal Security. Among those issues listed for discussion, the subject of NCTC also figures as one of the items. It is indeed unfortunate that, without taking into consideration the views and sentiments of various State Chief Ministers, the constitution of the NCTC is sought to be steamrolled into existence," Ms Jayalalithaa said in her letter, her second on NCTC to Dr Singh. Other Chief Ministers who have written to the PM slamming the NCTC are Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik, Gujarat CM Narendra Modi and Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar.