Phani Siddha
@ Super Sixty IAS Academy
Hyd
Polity: National
Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC): Meaning, functions, Controversy
Introduction: The
Need for NCTC
What will NCTC do?
Multi-Agency Centre
(MAC)
How is it different
from US and UK model?
What is the problem
with NCTC?
Power to Arrest
without informing State Government
Overlapping with NIA
Present Status of
NCTC
Introduction: The Need for NCTC
National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC)
After the 26/11 attacks, Government felt the need to setup a separate body to
deal with terrorism.
NCTC is modeled on the American NCTC and Britain’s Joint
Terrorism Analysis Centre.
NCTC will derive its powers from the Unlawful Activities
Prevention Act, 1967
The basic idea is to prevent confusion regarding intelligence
inputs and also ensure that none of the police forces from the states enter
into a blame game regarding intelligence sharing as one got to see during the
26/11 attacks in Mumbai.
What will NCTC do?
It will have the power to conduct searches and arrests in
any part of India.
will collect, collate
and disseminate data on terrorism.
will also maintain a data base on terrorist and their
associates including their families.
In short, NCTC will serve as a single and effective point of
control and coordination of all counter terrorism measures.
Multi-Agency Centre (MAC)
It is platform to share varied intelligence inputs coming
from various agencies like the
Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI),
Economic Intelligence Agency,
Enforcement Directorate etc. –
Earlier this MAC was under Intelligence Bureau under Home
Ministry.
But in future, the MAC will be placed under the NCTC.
How is it different
from US and UK model?
USA’s NCTC which deals only with strategic planning and
integration of intelligence without any operational involvement, UK ‘s Joint
Terrorism Analysis Centre, which too plays a purely coordinating role.
But the Indian NCTC will have not only intelligence functions
but also powers to conduct operations, raids and arrests in any part of India.
What is the problem with NCTC?
NCTC was to start working from March 2012, but it couldnot
be launched due to opposition from a group of Congress and Non-Congress chief
ministers who say that NCTC is against
the federal structure of the country. These Politicians say : “NCTC = Not a
good idea Sir-ji”
Power to Arrest without informing State Government
Non-Congress chief ministers allege that the NCTC has been
empowered to search and arrest people without informing the state government,
police or anti-terror squad in the loop.
Take this scenario for example. A suspected terrorist is
holed up in a state. The officials of the NCTC would have the right to enter
into that state and pick him or her up without informing the state machinery
and deal with him under their laws. The
role of the state becomes redundant with such powers and states would have no
say or role to play in the fight against terrorism. This would have a bearing on the rights and
privileges of the states as enshrined in the Constitution.
To curb this fear, Home Ministry had altered the rules. Now,
the senior most police officers in all states – the Director Generals of Police
and the chiefs of anti-terror squads of all states will be members of the
Standing Council of the NCTC. They will be informed before the NCTC conducts an
operation in their state.
And Home Ministry had also assured the State Governments
that NCTC will now be able to carry out anti-terror operations only in the
rarest of rare cases.
Overlapping with NIA
National Investigating Agency (NIA) was established after
the 26/11 attacks.
So, the establishment of a new NCTC would only add to the
bureaucratic tangle in intelligence sharing and counter terrorist action.
However, Mr Chidambaram had assured that NIA is merely a
predecessor of NCTC. (so once NCTC comes into operation, the NIA will function
under it or will be submerged into NCTC)
Present Status of
NCTC
After Mr Pranab Mukherjee become President, Mr Chidambaram became
Finance Minister and thus Mr Sushil Shinde became the Home Minister. But in his first public speech, did not mention
National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) or National Intelligence Grid
(NATGRID). That means, Home Ministry has put the idea in back-burner for now.
mrunal.org/polity
NCTC: events
will not wait for a decision, says NSA national security advisor
New Delhi: Warning that instruments of internal
security were in disrepair, National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon on
Monday made a strong case for setting up of the NCTC bluntly telling its
opponents that "events will not wait upon us for a decision".
Delivering the PC Lal Memorial Lecture, Menon underlined the principle
of prevention and pre-emption while dealing with new terror threats and said
reacting after an event did not seem to be a "satisfactory response".
The new threats were "much more potent" for the country's
colonial police structures to cope up with, he said citing the firepower used
by the terrorists during the attack in Mumbai in November 2008.
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National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon said there was a need to
evolve doctrines and capabilities and strategies to prevent \'unacceptable damage\'.
He said the government had made attempts to modernize laws and police
structures with considerable progress being made to counter terrorism by
setting up the National Investigation Agency and by amending the Unlawful
Activities Prevention Act. "But when it comes to giving practical effect
to the amendment to the UAPA to be able to counter terrorism, we still end up
in a huge debate on the NCTC," Menon said. Stressing on the need to act
before, rather than after the event, he said there was a need to evolve
doctrines and capabilities and strategies to prevent "unacceptable
damage". "This would require
India to create capabilities that would deter threats and would cause our
enemies to desist," he said. Menon pointed out that the UAPA amendments
were passed unanimously by Parliament after the Mumbai attacks and they
recognise the need to counter terrorism to prevent the commission of terrorist
acts before they occur.
NCTC will not
violate states' powers: PM
"In forming the NCTC, it is not the government's intent in any way
to affect the basic features of the constitutional provisions, and to affect
the allocation of powers between the states and the Union.
"The primary purpose of the NCTC is to coordinate counter-terrorism
efforts throughout the country, as the IB has been doing so far. It is for this
reason that the NCTC has been located within the IB and not as a separate
organisation," he wrote.
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PM Manmohan Singh assured the chief ministers that the NCTC will
function more like the IB and hence, had been placed under it.
"NCTC will be functioning like the IB has been functioning. It is
not a new organisation, but to address your concerns I have asked the Home
Minister to consult you," he added.
