Nearly three months after the Union Home Ministry notified setting up of the NCTC, its fate is still on the block.
Ten chief ministers, led by Mamata Banerjee, Naveen Patnaik and J Jayalalithaa had called the NCTC a blow to the federal structure. Even though the Union Home Ministry has sent a revised Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for Saturday's meet, the government's own allies appear far from convinced.
"Every state has a geographical boundary. No one can cross anyone's boundaries. So the Centre can not cross our boundaries. This is against federal structure," Mamata had said.
The bone of contention is the power to unilaterally search, seize and arrest that Section 43 A of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act gives to NCTC.
The CMs say that law and order is a state subject and a central body like the NCTC cannot carry out arrests without the state police.
In a climbdown, the revised SOP of the Home Ministry says that only in exceptional circumstances, will the NCTC carry out unilateral arrests. For all routine actions, the state DGP or the head of the ATS will be kept in the loop.
Sources say that the BJP may reconsider its opposition after the amendments.
From the DGPs conference to the internal security meet to the prime minister himself writing to protesting CMs, the central government has taken multiple steps in the past two months to break the NCTC logjam, so far without success. Will Saturday's meet find a breakthrough or will national security fall prey to political realities?
NCTC: Who stands where
While all the chief ministers of the Congress-ruled states are likely to support the NCTC, the BJP is also likely to tone down its protests after the revised SOP.
However, among the non-UPA parties, the AIADMK, the BJD and the JDU have been most vocal in their opposition and so has UPA ally Mamata Banerjee.
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