NCTC - National Counter Terrorism Center
- 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
- 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?
2.
Will collect, collate and disseminate data on terrorism.
3.
Will also maintain a data base on terrorist and their associates including
their families.
4.
In short, NCTC will serve as a single and effective point of
control and coordination of all counter terrorism measures.
MAC - Multi Agency Centre
It is
platform to share varied intelligence inputs coming from various agencies like
the
1.
Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI),
2.
Economic Intelligence Agency,
3.
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?
- 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
What is the problem with NCTC?
NCTC was
to start working from March 2012, but it could not be launched due to
opposition from a group of Non-Congress chief ministers who say that NCTC is
against the federal structure of the country. They are worried about two
important things that NCTC is totally against the federal structure of the
Indian Constitution.
(1) Power
to arrest anyone without informing State government:-
v
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.
v
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.
v
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.
v
This would have a bearing on the rights and privileges of the
states as enshrined in the Constitution.
v
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.
v
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.
(2) Overlapping with NIA:-
v
National Investigating Agency (NIA) was established after the
26/11 attacks.
v
So, the establishment of a new NCTC would only add to the
bureaucratic tangle in intelligence sharing and counter terrorist action.
v
However, Union govt 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:-
Ø
But Shinde, in his first public speech, did not mention National
Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) or National
Intelligence Grid (NATGRID).
Ø
That means Home Ministry has put the idea in back-burner for now.
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