The Union government finally cleared a proposal to set up a National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC), the last of the three institutions proposed by Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram after 26/11 to strengthen the country's security architecture.
The in-principle approval for setting up the NCTC, which will gather and give intelligence to Central and State security agencies, came at an hour-long meeting on Thursday of the Cabinet Committee on Security, headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
After receiving approval from the Departments of Expenditure and Personnel and finally from the Cabinet Committee on Security, the Home Ministry will appoint a Director for the NCTC and a core team of officers, who will be its “nucleus,” Mr. Chidamabaram told journalists.
The NCTC would work under the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and report to its Director, the Home Secretary and the Home Minister, he clarified.
The Ministry's initial desire to set up an independent anti-terror body was shot down within the government, after it received a negative response from the Finance Ministry.
Asked whether the NCTC — as cleared by the CCS — reflected a dilution of his earlier plans, Mr. Chidambaram said: “It's not a comedown. This is a beginning. Eventually based on our experience, based on what we find are our shortcomings, deficiencies or safeguards that have to be built in, it will eventually grow into the kind of organisation I had envisaged.”
The NCTC's functions, Mr. Chidambaram said, would include drawing up plans and co-ordinating all actions to counter terrorism, integrating all intelligence, coordinating with relevant intelligence agencies to ensure that the perpetrators of terror are brought to justice, maintaining a comprehensive database of terrorists, their associates and supporters, and ensuring that all agencies have access to and receive the support of all intelligence agencies. The Multi-Agency Centre would be brought under the NCTC.
Defending the idea of setting up the NCTC, Mr. Chidambaram said: “Counter-terrorism in today's day and age is a specialised function. There must be an organisation that devotes its complete time and energy to anticipating and countering terrorists. Every country I know of — the U.S., the U.K., France, Israel, Germany, Russia, Japan and China — have all got organisations devoted to counter-terrorism.”
Asked whether the NCTC would have helped to prevent the terror attacks in the recent past had it been created earlier, he said it was a speculative question. “There have been six attacks in the U.S. after 9/11, but the same report says the U.S. has been able to foil 18 potential terror attacks. We have been able to bust 58 or 59 modules in the last two to three years. Maybe, we could have, maybe we could not have, as I said…there is something called luck.”
