Anti-terror agency will be misused, fears Modi

New Delhi, June 5: Like CBI, the centre may misuse anti-terror agency, fears Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

Speaking at the chief minister's meeting to discuss the new draft on National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) Modi said "I fear that it will be another institution of the Centre for political misuse against opposition-ruled states."

Modi said the creation of any new institution or organisation of this nature should be done only after having a complete unanimity amongst the Centre and the states.

"The inability of the Centre to coordinate efforts with states to achieve consensus on such issues emanates from the unwillingness on its part to recognise the states as equal partners in handling issues related to internal security. It also exhibits a strong sense of one-upmanship and a contempt for the constitutional division of powers," he said.

Raising concerns over the new draft of NCTC, he termed it a "poorly conceived" idea which "tinkers" with old ideas rather than strengthening them.

He also mentioned about the last minute circulation of proposed order on NCTC, giving little time to the states to respond.

"It is not clear how big it is going to be, what forces are going to comprise it, how exactly it is going to function and which statute will it derive its powers from. I think such poorly conceived ideas which tinker with age old existing systems rather than strengthening them are going to do irreparable loss to our internal security apparatus," he said.

Modi expressed his strong reservations about the structure and functioning proposed in the National Counter Terrorism Centre Order, 2013.

"Moving the multi-agency centre (MAC) from within IB to the proposed NCTC will end up weakening it even as it appeared that it was taking some concrete shape. The proposed NCTC will be just another superstructure in the maze of institutions already existing," he said.

Modi said proposed structure of the NCTC is not in congruence with the principles of federalism as it essentially tries to create a "federal police" which is an alien concept to the country.

Modi expressed his concerns about purported threat of CPI (Maoist) to target areas of the country which are the drivers of the industrial progress of the country.

"Their main target, as per their own words; is the 'Golden Corridor' of the Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad industrial belt, which also includes the major industrial clusters of Surat and Baroda.

Given this background, I am disappointed once again by the short-sightedness of today's agenda.

"While the LWE (Left wing extremism) affected states fully deserve all priority in the security response of the country, it will be an extremely myopic approach to ignore the security concerns of the LWE targeted regions," Modi said.

Modi criticised poor tangible outcomes of such meetings and said such meetings should be zealously guarded from becoming mere fora for academic exchanges or getting reduced to annual rituals.

"Now, more than ever before, we need firm political will to unite as a nation and its leaders, for charting a clear and decisive direction on this critical matter of Internal Security," he said.

With PTI inputs