NCTC: my thoughts

NCTC

One of the biggest dangers that India faces today is that of terrorism. Terrorist activities are on a rising trend and their means and measures have increased, operational strategy has improved and ability to inflict harm has multiplied tremendously. Thus we need to have strong anti-terror body. One solution is to have a central agency such as the NCTC. Such an agency can act as a coordinator between the various state governments, and central & state governments. Experience shows that lot of terror activities can be nailed down with proper intelligence sharing. Such an agency can be helpful in coordinating the anti-terror and anti-naxal operations, intelligence sharing between states and can act as an intelligence repository. The aim of such an agency should be to help the states in jointly fighting the menace of terrorism and not to dominate or subvert the local law & order mechanism or impinge upon the federal structure. Thus before its establishment the government should take into confidence all the states governments regarding the scope, purpose and powers of such a body.

On the other hand, no one should out-rightly reject the demand for creation of such a body as this is a pressing need of the hour. The politicians should not oppose the creation of such a body for satisfying their false egos under the alibi of federalism. Federalism was adopted in our constitution due to the large size and diversity of our country. Its purpose was to devolve powers to the states so that they can be better administered. Federalism’s basic principles will never go against the principle of united INDIA and when the time comes national interests will take precedence over the provincial interests.

Thus a meeting should be called asap to resolve all the issues surrounding creation of NCTC. SOP should be finalized, a steering committee should be formed to run it and all other modalities should be completed to pave the way for creation of such a body.