Accusing the Centre of infringing on federal rights of the states, chief ministers of Uttarakhand and Tripura on Sunday also joined the bandwagon of states who are opposing the setting up of the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC). The centre, however, denied the charges and said it had no desire to infringe on the states’ rights.
Talking to reporters in Delhi Union I&B minister Ambika Soni said, “We have time and again said that terror should not be politicised. It should be fought jointly and the Centre has no desire to infringe on the states’ rights.” While reacting to a question on several states’ resistance over the NCTC order, Ms Soni said, “Union home minister P. Chidambaram has reiterated for the last two days that no such step has been taken by Centre that violates the rights of the states. I believe that people of the country will stand together as a combined front to eradicate terrorism.”
Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi on Sunday extended his support for proposed NCTC while asserting that it was not a threat to federal structure of the country. Talking to reporters in Guwahati, he said, “All concerned should cooperate and I do not feel it will harm the country’s federal structure”.
Referring that Armed Forces Special Powers Act is already in force in Assam, he said there is no opposition to it in the state unlike in other areas of the region. “The most important aspect is how well it is implemented. Care should be taken that there is no case of misuse,” said Mr Gogoi regretting that some states are unnecessarily opposing the move. He was of view that AFSPA has more draconian provisions than the proposed NCTC.
However, criticising the Centre of “double speak”, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi said though the UPA claimed that security was a “shared” responsibility of the Centre and states, it did not bother to consult states when it came to forming laws. In one his posting on Twitter, Mr Modi demanded a meeting of all state CMs to discuss Sarkaria Commission recommendations on Centre-state relations. “In the past few years, the UPA government in Delhi is damaging the federal structure of India and because of this the country may have to face dangerous situations,” said Modi. Echoing similar view, Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar, in a letter to the Prime Minister, said the “unilateral” move would only create “misunderstanding”.
Similarly, accusing the Centre of infringing on federal rights of the states, Uttarakhand chief minister B.C. Khanduri opposed the proposed NCTC.