NCTC meet snippets

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and home minister P Chidambaram made a strong pitch for formation of the counterterror body, arguing the need for such a body to fight terrorism in coordinated manner.   Stressing that NCTC will supplement the counter-terrorism capabilities of the states and not supplant them; Singh asked the state governments to work with the Centre in dealing with terrorism. “Terrorism is today one of the most potent threats to our national security. There can be no disagreement on putting an effective counter terrorism regime with efficient mechanism and response systems both at the national level and at the state level,” Singh said in his inaugural speech at a conference of CMs on the NCTC. The PM said, “Establishment of NCTC is not a state versus Centre issue and the primary purpose behind setting up the NCTC is to coordinate counter-terrorism efforts throughout the country as the Intelligence Bureau has been doing so far.” Allaying fears of some of the CMs about disturbing the federal structure, the PM stressed that the government’s intention was in no way to affect the distribution of powers between the states and the Union that the Constitution provides. 
Advocating the need for setting up anti-terror hub NCTC, Chidambaram said: “That terrorists do not recognize boundaries between countries or boundaries between sates belonging to a country; that many terrorist organizations have footprints in several countries and have the capacity to commit terrorist acts across borders or boundaries; that human resources alone are not sufficient to counter terrorism; technology is the key weapon in this conflict.” Emphasizing on why it is needed to have a body like NCTC, he said there were cases where, despite inputs regarding the presence of terrorists, the security agencies concerned did not act either due to lack of capacity or lack of timely decision. “Most of these cases concerned so-called ‘jihadi’ terrorists and cadres of CPI (Maoist). What should central government do in such cases?” he asked. Highlighting a new dimension to terror threats, Chidambaram said hitherto, security forces have confronted them only in the physical space, but now there are such threats in the cyber space, which is the fifth domain after land, sea, air and space. “Much of our critical infrastructure lies in cyber space. Cyber crimes such as hacking, financial fraud, data theft, espionage etc. would, in certain circumstances, amount to terrorist acts. “Our counter-terrorism capacity must be able to meet the threats in cyber space. Since there are no boundaries in cyber space, how will the Central Government and the State Governments share the responsibility to face the threats in cyber space?” Chidambaram asked.