Thaindian News

New Delhi, May 5 (IANS) Even as he expressed happiness over the changes in the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi Saturday maintained that it was an attack on the federal structure and demanded a roll back of the proposal.

The NCTC, which was tweaked by the central government to give more powers to the states after most non-Congress chief ministers raised objections at an earlier meeting April 16, was Saturday taken up in a meeting presided by the prime minister.

Speaking at the meeting, Modi said he was “happy the request has been acceded to”.

He, however, maintained that NCTC was an attack on federalism and would be “eroding the capabilities of the state police”.

Talking to reporters later, the chief minister said government should roll back the move as “all major states are against the proposal”.

“Most of the big states have opposed the NCTC… I will urge Indian government, don’t make it a prestige issue,” Modi said.

“Accept the states’ demand and roll back the proposal… For a long time, one after the other steps of centre have been such that increase mistrust between union government and state… Confidence should be increase between the states and the union,” he said.

Addressing the meeting earlier, Modi accused the government of acting as the “viceroys of yore” and termed the constitution of NCTC a conscious strategy to cast the central government as an “omnipresent” ruler with states portrayed as dependent vassals.

He questioned if faith in “constitutional arrangements and center-state relationship in a federal structure” has been lost.

Modi said NCTC may look like a hasty and ill-conceived move but in the backdrop of recent events in our “body-politic” assumes significance as a conscious strategy to pursue “certain hidden goals”.

“In a vast and diverse country like ours, the state governments must be strengthened and supported in the fight against terror. What we have witnessed is a systematic attempt to weaken the state governments and to centralise powers in the union government,” Modi said.

He rubbished the government’s argument that the proposed anti-terror body was on the lines of similar bodies in the US and Britain.

“We claim to draw inspiration from initiatives in USA and UK… however while these nations were strengthening themselves and sending a strong signal of robust will to fight terror, we were busy repealing existing anti-terror laws like POTA,” he said.

He also alleged that NCTC might bring covert working of the Intelligence Bureau in the open, and bring it “on display at every junction like a police chowki”.