NEW DELHI: The Centre, which has offered a truce on the National Counter Terrorism Centre by proposing changes to placate the States’ concerns on infringement of federalism, may still come across a wall in the setting up of the anti-terror body.
What has made a section within the government, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a little cautious about the NCTC, is the opposition it has generated among the Governors of States. Surprisingly, as many as three of them-West Bengal’s M K Narayanan, Punjab’s Shivraj Patil and Karnataka’s H S Bharadwaj-have cited legal and operational problems that the NCTC could come across.
According to a Trinamool Congress leader, “Narayanan has written to the Prime Minister citing several anomalies (in the NCTC plan)”. Apparently, the former PMO official, known for his sleuthing past, has raised “operational issues”. Bharadwaj and Patil’s objections are legal. But, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram and the PM’s National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon have been diligently backing the proposal.