My opinion on the proposed NCTC bill ...

For long we did not know who should be blamed for the failure of preventing terrorist acts on our soil . We wondered if the central government which controls the intelligence mechanisms or the state government which is supposed to act on that intelligence should be held responsible . The intelligence bureau blamed it on state police for failing to act on their intelligence and the state police always complained of inadequate intelligence . We watched at this post-terror sparring with helplessness . We screamed and howled and cursed but nothing changed about our anti-terror preparedness.

It is to the credit of Mr Chidambaram that a proposal to a create single responsible agency is being deliberated upon . It is highly irresponsible to think that the home minister of the country is creating such an organization to undermine the states powers or to undermine the federal structure of this country . Despite the allegations of corruption Mr Chidambaram faces it should be noted that he worked tirelessly to improve the national security of India . He is a man who wants to create real toothful institutions . And the NCTC bill is a result of such intentions .

NCTC will be whole and sole organization that will be acting on terror intelligence . This whole business of coordinating with state police and state intelligence organizations is not working .we need one organization to collect intelligence on terror and to act on it and that is what NCTC is going to do . NCTC is going to be carved out of IB and it will work under IB and one can safely assume that NCTC is a special anti-terror focussed cell of IB with powers to collect intelligence act on that without depending on state police and preempt terror in this country . Such a powerful organization is the need of the hour . The whole argument of undermining federalism debate is continental nonsense . we are not going to undermine federalism or state powers by having a powerful central organization to preempt terror .There is no doubt that the central government may misuse such powers but the possibility of misuse of powers is not an argument strong enough to push back a powerful anti-terror body .

Is there any institution in this country that is not being misused by the government of the day . Aren't the CBI & CVC being misused . Aren't the courts being influenced by the government . Every insititution can be misused by the men in power and this misused happens not just in India but everywhere in the world and the possibility of misuse is not the reason why we should oppose an institution that is supposed to fight terror with single-mindedness .

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