Non-Congress chief ministers meet separately on sidelines of internal security conference

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi April 16, 2012 :  Naveen Patnaik described it as a courtesy call on an old family friend. But as the Odisha Chief Minister and another non-Congress CM, Gujarat’s Narendra Modi, trooped in to meet J Jayalalithaa, Tamil Nadu Bhawan seemed to draw more attention than the CMs’ meet on internal security for which these leaders were in Delhi. Sukhbir Singh Badal, Deputy CM of Punjab, who was earlier scheduled to also meet Ms Jayalaithaa, did not turn up finally.

 

The closed-group meetings are being viewed as both, some political muscle-flexing and strategy talk before a May 5 meeting called by the Centre. All the three leaders are part of a group of non-Congress CMs who are staunchly opposed to the Centre’s proposed National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC). Each of these CMs have written to the Prime Minister, some repeatedly, against the proposed anti-terror body NCTC, saying it steps on the toes of states and as such violates the federal structure that the Indian Constitution provides for.
 Ms Jayalalithaa, who arrived in Delhi this morning, said, "I can’t say what we will discuss in the evening." Both Naveen Patnaik and Narendra Modi left Tamil Nadu Bhawan without commenting.
But they all had a lot to say on the matter at the meeting convened by Home Minister P Chidambaram and chaired by the Prime Minister on internal security. Both Mr Chidambaram and Dr Manmohan Singh reached out to the states saying, "There is no conflict between central and state forces."
 But Ms Jayalalithaa launched a scathing attack on the government over the contentious anti-terror body at the chief ministers’ conference. "NCTC is contravention of the constitutional provisions which accord the police priority status in the state list...Centre is trying to intimidate and browbeat the states through top-down structures particularly when police is a state subject is not acceptable. In other words, there are continuous veiled attempts by the Centre to weaken the states with too much interference which is detrimental to the national interest."
 Meanwhile, her Gujarat counterpart too slammed the "unilateralism" of the government vis-a-vis states. "I have said there is utter unilateralism going on, be it BSF or NCTC or RPF. Due to this unilateralism, there is lack of trust between the states and the Centre. For internal security, such a lack of mistrust can prove to be very difficult," Narendra Modi said.
 "The discussion on NCTC has been delayed dangerously...This is a matter of urgent public importance as it affects the security of the entire country...hope this issue about the federal rights of all the states will be done. These new acts that the central government will bring out, they must be done in consultation with state governments," Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik said at the internal security meeting.
West Bengal CM and UPA ally Mamata Banerjee, who has spearheaded that CMs’ protest, even arm-twisting the government she partners to promise in Parliament that no further steps will be taken on the NCTC without a thorough discussion with chief ministers, was conspicuously the only CM absent at the meeting on internal security. She has said she will attend the NCTC meeting on May 5. For today, Ms Banerjee sent her Finance Minister for the meeting and reiterated, "The proposed anti-terror body upsets the federal structure." Lest her views on internal security be missed, she also said, "Left wing extremism has serious implications on national security."

 

Courtesy: NDTV