P Chidambaram’s dream project National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), which was initially opposed by many states and civil society, is likely to go through because the government has now decided that the NCTC will function under the Intelligence Bureau without the powers to search, seize and arrest terror suspects in any part of the country without informing state governments. It was opposed by the states on the ground of interference in the federal structure. Muslim organisations are apprehensive that NCTC could be misused and violate human rights. But the big question is: Can technology alone fight terror?
On 4 April, the proposed draft of the modified NCTC will be shared with the states and is to be placed before the chief ministers during a conference on Centre-State relations and Administrative Reforms Commission in order to arrive at a consensus so that it is acceptable to all states. Raghu Raman, chief of National Intelligence Grid, while speaking at a programme on terrorism at TEDx event in the national capital recently said that technology and increased security cannot be only panacea to curb terror activities unless and until society is ready to play a crucial role to end this scourge.
In the backdrop of Hyderabad blasts, the issue of making NCTC fully functional has been debated and discussed. At a time when the concern of states over adopting the NCTC is talked upon, many senior officials at the helm of internal security believe that better coordination between the existing agencies of the state and centre is needed along with the NCTC. The instinct of prejudice and religious discrimination needs to be addressed along with all other forms of technological advancement in order to make the terror investigation more transparent and trustworthy.
Sagarika Ghose, Deputy Editor, CNN-IBN in her article, “Our Keystone Cops” in the Hindustan Times, (13 March), rightly pointed out that police will never be able to solve terror cases if it continues to target and implicate members of a particular community after every blast in the country. It is hereby necessary to find out that whether there is any provision outlined in the proposed format of the NCTC that could ensure transparency and accountability.
Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari, while speaking on the occasion of R.N. Kao Memorial Lecture organised by RAW in New Delhi in January 2010 emphasised on the need for greater “oversight and accountability” in the operations of the country’s intelligence agencies by making them accountable to Parliament.
The Central Advisory Council of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind on 19 April last adopted a resolution against setting up of NCTC, saying it will violate human rights. The proposed centre on the one hand equips Intelligence Bureau (IB) with extraordinary rights and on the other does not fix its accountability. The issue is not only of intervention in the rights of states but of equipping the Centre with extraordinary rights, which it will exploit through IB. The JIH felt that as in the past black laws (TADA, POTA, MACOCA, and UAPA) formulated in the name of countering terrorism were used against weaker sections, especially Muslims, similarly this centre also will target the Muslims.