In September, 1970, J. Edgar Hoover wrote a secret memo which pithily explained the difference between criminal investigators and spies: the “purpose of counter-intelligence action,” it stated, “is to disrupt, and it is immaterial whether facts exist to substantiate the charge.” Four decades on, as Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram prepares to give teeth to India's new National Counter-Terrorism Centre, the words of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's legendary — and paranoiac — founding director should help Indians understand why the idea is profoundly misguided. For years now, India's intelligence services have complained — sometimes with justification — that State governments have been reluctant to act on credible intelligence of counter-terrorism value. Political motives, they point out, have led governments as disparate as Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Bihar not to arrest figures involved with Hindutva, Islamist or Maoist groups. India's Constitution, Mr. Chidambaram has pointed out, makes it incumbent on the Central government to “maintain internal security.” The Ministry of Home Affairs' proposal to arm the NCTC with the power to conduct searches and make arrests derives, he argues, from this obligation.
Mr. Chidambaram may be right about the Constitution but there are three sound reasons why the mounting concerns over the NCTC must be taken seriously. First, the Intelligence Bureau is not an organisation that is, or ought to be, concerned with criminal justice. Like other intelligence services across the world, its task is to gather information that the police can use to guide and inform the course of a criminal investigation, not to make judgments on whether that intelligence has value as evidence. Blurring the distinction between intelligence-gathering and policing will open up the possibility of abuses — abuses for which Hoover's FBI became notorious. The Union government already has an investigative service with a nationwide mandate, the National Investigation Agency. This makes it even less clear why the NCTC needs the same powers. In India, secondly, the concerns are amplified because the IB has historically taken an expansive view of national security — notably, by devoting extensive resources to political surveillance. Handing it the power to arrest will expand the possibility of political misuse. Thirdly, as experts have pointed out, India's counter-terrorism efforts have floundered because State police forces lack the training, resources and manpower needed to conduct effective investigations. Arming the NCTC with the power to arrest will not solve this core problem. Like other intelligence-related reforms, the NCTC's powers ought to have been subject to an informed and vigorous debate in Parliament. It still isn't too late to conduct one.
Keywords: NCTC, India's counter-terrorism, J. Edgar Hoover, National Counter-Terrorism Centre, Home Minister P. Chidambaram, Intelligence Bureau
In his letter to the CM the home minister referred to the clause in NCTC that the individual arrested will be handed over to the nearest police immediately and the NCTC will aid the police investigation, charge-sheeting and prosecution but it will be the local authority who will be in charge. Thus, the NCTC evades two procedures i.e informing and utilizing the local authority prior to arrest and searches. This, in my opinion, is an expedient process in terror related operations where information leakages and lethargy can be crucial blunder in their handling. The government needs to be given the benefit of doubt in the case of terror and privacy ,though important, should take a back-sheet. Nevertheless, the efficiency of the organization and its objective functioning & independence should be taken into account.
Every time something terrible happens in the country, all the government
does is bring up new "intelligence" agencies.
We already have a plethora of intelligence agencies - IB, RAW, NIA,
Military Intelligence directorate, CBI to some degree, NTRO etc and now
this NCTC. About 10-12 in all.
Don't the leaders at the top understand that just going on creating new
intelligence agencies will not solve the problem. There needs to be a
paradigm shift in the way things work in this country.
By the way will PC kindly let the nation where exactly file relating to
Afzal Guru is lying at present? Will he conclusively let us know what is
his party position on the terrorists killed in Delhi and whether
Inspector Mohan Chand died a martyr or not?
we already have NIA and CBI which are politically misused, there is no need for NCTC, instead make already existing stronger, make these two office independent
Mr.Chidambaram's yet another misadventure to peep into the non-indira congress governments' affairs and to destabilise them under the guise of countr-terrorism. This proposal is draconian and counter productive. He had interpreted The Constitution as a lawyer and he is not tha only lawyer in India. Every lawyer will have his own interpretation and so his argument is not the only conclusive one. This will be misused by the Government at the centre as is done in the case of IB,CBI et al. The editorial is hundred percent correct-spies cannot and should not police us.
I think to some extend Mr. Chidambaram is right. If the state tends to disagree
with you on arresting a person due to a difference of opinion or due to vested
interest, it will be a blow to the union that is India. We are not a confederation and
neither are we an empire or a banana republic. Everytime some party like the
Thrinamool or the AIADMK or the BSP or the SP or some BJP ruled states chips at
the chink in our armor called regionalism, or religion or cast, it's a recipe for
disaster. I would guess that the move then should be to remove all powers vested
in the IB to the CBI or something like that and definitely not intelligence agencies.
Any which way you look, having the IB run the NCTC is a disaster.
India is not America and America is not India. Seems like after liberating our nation from Brit we have fallen in the hands of Americans. Indian is an indestructible union of destructible states and she is not mere a treaty of several small states to unite and form nation state. We should stop comparing us with Americans and do whatever suits to our culture and obviously which strengthens our national integrity.
The mental construct that a strong anti-terror federal agency is a threat to federal structure of nation is unfortunate. Rather, our politicians from all across the nation should join their hands and sought for a much stronger and more effective policy to tackle the issue of global terrorism. Terrorism today is a transnational organization which has no boundary and should be tackle in a manner more conducive to dealt with it's newly acquired structure in era of globalisation.
If IB had been used by the central government so also the police force by state governments.This had been a major issue during the "Shiv Sena" atrocities in the 70's in Maharashtra.The plight of south Indians were really pathetic.A reoccurrence took place when innocent north Indians came for a Railways examination at Kalyan, Mumbai, in the recent past. Since the situation is distressing in our prestigious (!) democracy, in either way, what hopes the public can anticipate from the authorities? Perhaps it is time for a clean-up. But who will do it is the biggest question !
Superb and very much analytic editorial. It has well touched all the
aspects of such a mechanism. India doesn't need a Hoover idea like FBI
that later became notorious with its deeds around the globe. We have
ample mechanisms like NIA, IB and RAW. Equip them with state of the
art technology and that will be enough than setting up NCTC which is
likely to be misused by the people at the power centres. Today's
editorial in Times of India too discussed the same but the newspaper
defended the idea citing the threat of so called Global Jihadi
networks and focused it into a particular community. Such fear
propaganda should not be allowed in any circumstances and should be
thwarted to keep democratic values of this nation.
Excellent editorial, on target and carrying the weight of the basic elements of governance in
a participative democracy. It is a telling commentary how absolute power corrupts absolutely
when Chidambaram and his ilk exceed their mandate under the intoxication of power. The
editorial gives a relevant look back to the Hoover era. Similar experiences have occurred
under Communist regimes elsewhere.
I am not bother at all for the called federal structure. I mean we the
people of india, need safety. Who will provide it, centre or states, it
hardly matters. When ever a step is taken in any direction, be it fdi in
retail of NCTC, some will oppose it, some will support it. But my
questions to the opposing CMs, can you guarantee peoples safety or have you any new idea to plug
the shortcomings ? please do something to fight terrorism and dont
oppose just for sake of opposing it.
There are five major factor's which stand firm against the launch of NCTC:
1) Governement in control can launch havoc on the opposition.
2) The individual's enrolled for the NCTC program may look for cast creed & colour before looking into the actual problem.
3) The huge capital pumped in for launching the new body can be used to strenghthen the existing one rather than drilling hole in common man's pocket.
4) The solution to any problem lies in the grass root level, even if it's cancer. With the state & district administration being inefficient and unskilled to to capture problem, my suggestion would be to simply divert our attention towards them rather than proposing a which seem nothing more than fake foul & futile.
5) Apart from looking towards terrorism, there are many such domestic issues upfront such as medical treatment, research and financial planning which demands proper attention and positive execution.
The NCTC empowerment must be discussed threadbare in the Parliament and voted.Even eroding Nation's resources and wealth also are weakening the strength of the country.
NCTC in the present format AND under the HM need to be studied thoroughly. Battered as he is various revelations and his own election
is under the Court No one can be blamed for smelling very unlterior
motives at this time.One should read the "war ägainst the Facebook
net working by the Minister for Telecom with is. Intolerance to criticism has been the tenet of the ruling elite and they want to muffle any criticism against them. NCTC will be used as a tool and they
want to be better "prepared"the Ms.Indira Gandhi when she declared Emergency
Chidambaram,who shied away from collective responsibility for 2G
with his own Cabinet colleagues, now wants to be collectively
responsible with the States... for what? Setting up NCTC has nothing
to do with either spying or policing.
Indians began to see that freedom from British rule was the only way
out, in the 1920s, and these years also saw the most repression.
Activists in the princely states sought refuge in British India, and
activists in British India sought refuge in Pondicherry and abroad.
When Indira Gandhi declared Emergency, most States were ruled by the
Congress, but those who could fled to non-Congress ruled States. Now
Chidambaram wants to close that option.
India's culture varies from region to region. It is impossible to know
the entire India sitting in Delhi. In fact the states should be near
autonomous. Federal government should not act as superior to state
governments. It is not a supreme government. If the GOI wants to control
situations in the states independent of state involvement, then it is
high time we dissolve the present system of governance in state but to
administer through a Governor appointed by GOI.
The main issue is whether to give NCTC the powers to arrest and conduct searches and these actions should be counted and taken into account seriously and also by doing such will it get counted ....
I agree with Mayank that there is no need to create new investigation body. The efforts must be made to enhance the working culture of the existing bodies like NIA,CBI on the state level as well.Amid speculations made by several state minister that NCTC will severly affect the federal structure of the INDIA,the discussion must be carried out in the wake of threats that NCTC may cause to the democracy and political bent.
I say put it under the control of the Opposition. That will seem fair enough....Just a thought!
I think Chidambaram with his American education is trying to bring in some parallel in India to NSA, CIA and FBI as influenced his American buddies (i suppose).
To tackle terror it doesn't make much sense to increase skepticism without increasing a meaningful dialogue to address the current shortcomings in terms of the adaptability of current forces to address an untoward incident happening in any city and right wing issues.
Adding departments or institutions will only be a waste of tax payers money and will at some point of time be merged back to an old establishment. It is a shame to have legacy stuff still lingering around with no meaningful use.
The amount spent in the name of counter terror could just very well be used to improve awareness among people and exporting goodwill.
The problem is not that we have opened one more center or department.But the thing is we don't want to strengthen the existing one.In general case also we open department to decentralize the power which creates the obstacle to work in effective way. In my view division of work creates the a big problem in the flow of work.In case of criminal investigation its power is to gather information only. So I didn't get what is the use of creating this body. This can be done by police itself.Its is the same as CAG, which has not given any power to take decision. It's highly required to give power and strengthen the existing body rather creating the new one.
NCTC mandate is founded on the principle of amalgaming intelligence "gathering", investigating and arraigning for prosecution actions into a single agency. Reasons; one, the States have repeatedly proved inept,by your own admission; two,the threat is now no more the D-Company or inter-state gang of bandits, they are sophisticated,ruthless,externally supported and sponsored(not only by Pakistan) and can cause catastrophic disasters like the abortive attempt on BARC,Mumbai;three,given that our unscruplous political heavyweights will be tempted to misuse the powers we must find ways to introduce an oversight committee where all three pillars of our democracy have a representation and the powers to adjudicate.
The solution in these testing times,especially for opinion makers like you, is to build consensus on viable solutions and not bandwagoning with dissonance.The FBI still retains the "abusive" powers and after 9/11 has been entrusted to prevent terrorist attacks on US homeland.
In India, the politicians, and in specific, the ruling dispensation, is not known for non- partisan approach to politics, religion and justice. If Chidambaram and Congress is really convinced about the need for such pan- national agency, they should think of a structure under which it will operate. The oversight of such machinery must be divorced from the executive, and placed in the hands of independent body which includes opposition leaders, key state representatives who could be represented by rotation amongst states, retired judges of eminence etc. Unless they put forward such proposal I will not be convinced of the seriousness of Congress party. Also, it must be noted that while the Edit mentions four non- Congress state as an example of non- cooperation, the terror attacks have mainly occurred in Congress ruled states- Maharashtra and Delhi ! I am surprised at such incosistency in editorial of The Hindu !
The article explains the basic difference between criminal
investigation and espionage,which may serve a dual purpose-justified or
unjustified.India indeed needs to improve both of them.Introspection is
the only wait.
We have seen how various Acts and laws concentrate immense power in certain centers of authority. We also see that these powers are then abused frequently. If innocent persons are being hurt by authorities through the abuse of legally vested authority, it is time to stop and take a re-look at whether the powers are deserved or not. Even one case of abuse is too many because it is done through vested authority.
As you have rightly pointed out, in the past the IB has been mostly used (or rather misused) by the ruling party to spy on political opponents and giving it the power of arrest will "open up the possibility of political misuse".
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