National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC)

The era of super-terrorism calls for an era of new and pragmatic responsiveness if the edifice of human civilization is to remain intact. Since our ethos and civilization are under threat from various forces, the response regime must undergo a radical mutation and graduate to the one where the key functions of a counter-terrorism grid — intelligence, investigation and operation — form a synergic whole. It is a welcome augury that Union Home Minister P Chidambaram has realized that imperative. Delivering the Intelligence Bureau Centenary Endowment Lecture in New Delhi on Wednesday, he said: ‘‘By a quirk of fate, India in the 21st century has turned out to be the confluence of every kind of violence: insurrection or insurgency in order to carve out sovereign states, armed liberation struggle motivated by a rejected ideology; and terrorism driven by religious fanaticism. Never before has the Indian state faced such a formidable challenge. Never before have the Indian people been asked to prepare themselves for such fundamental changes in the manner in which the country will be secured and protected.’’ Hence the major idea of setting up a National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC). Chidambaram said that the US was able to create such an organization within 36 months of the 9/11 attack but ‘‘India cannot afford to wait for 36 months’’ and ‘‘must succeed in setting up the NCTC by the end of 2010.

So what will be the NCTC objectives? How will it effect a radical shift in the internal security architecture? As the Home Minister said, the goal is to counter terrorism, which will include prevention of terror attack, containment of a terror attack if one takes place, and response to a terror attack by inflicting pain on the perpetrators. Therefore, the NCTC’s mandate will be quite broad. It will deal with all forms of terrorism — be it the one unleashed by the insurgent-turned-terrorist in the northeastern  region or Maoism or jihadi savagery. Since the NCTC will perform functions relating to intelligence, investigation and operation — the crux of the NCTC matter — all intelligence agencies will be represented in it, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) will be brought under its overall control, and organizations like the National Security Guard (NSG) will be under its ambit to give an edge to the operation wing. The position of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) too will be re-examined so that a way could be found to place them under the oversight of the NCTC as far as terrorism is concerned. The NCTC will be headed by a police or military officer and ‘‘he/she will be the single person accountable to the country on all matters relating to internal security’’.

The NCTC era may also witness the much-needed unloading of the Union Home Ministry, doing away with the anachronistic internal security regime. As Chidambaram rightly said, the Union Home Minister ‘‘should devote the whole of his/her time and energy to matters relating to security’’. The Home Ministry presently performs a gamut of functions ranging from freedom fighters to Centre-State relations to human rights to disaster management. It is an archaic arrangement that prevents the minister from concentrating on internal security. Therefore, Chidambaram would have the subjects not directly related to internal security be dealt with by a separate ministry or brought under a separate department in the Home Ministry and dealt with by a minister more or less independently. This must happen simultaneously with the NCTC if the latter were to be as efficacious as envisioned. THE SENTINEL