NCTC row: Congress asks BJP to stop playing double-faced politics

Kanpur, Feb 18 (ANI): Union Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal on Friday hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for opposing the UPA Government's National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) proposal, saying the opposition is playing double-faced politics.

Jaiswal said the BJP must now exert pressure on states ruled by it to support the act formed by the Government of India to fight against terrorism and not oppose it.

"Once the BJP says the Government of India is not fighting against terrorism. When the Government of India formulates law to fight against terrorism, they even criticize that. The BJP has always been double faced. The BJP must now impose pressure on the states ruled by it to support the act formed by the Government of India to fight against terrorism and not oppose it," he told the media here.

Jaiswal said the National Counter Terrorism Centre will help in the fight against terrorism, and added that no one should oppose it for personal interests.

"To deal with terrorism, the Government of India has planned to bring this Act. And the effort behind it is to only that a different agency should be formed to fight terrorism so that any unpleasant situation arising out of the terror activities can be dealt with. I do not think anybody in this country should raise objections to it," said Jaiswal.

"But if anybody raises objection on account of self-interest, then I think he has not seen the law properly. He has not envisaged the form in which terrorism is going to come in times to come. So, my submission to the various state governments is that they should not raise objections to such types of laws, and this act must be brought forward with full agreement," he added.

Jaiswal further expressed hope that all states of the country will accept this proposal put forward by the government.

The BJP had earlier on Friday pulled up the UPA Government on the issue, and said that chief ministers of states across the country are miffed over non-consultation of putting into action the NCTC.

"We are deeply concerned now that several sates including one which is an alliance partner in union government headed by Mamata Banerjee in the Trinamool Congress. She has protested very strongly, even Naveen Patnaik (chief minister of Orissa) has protested and other couple of senior leaders from the various states who have protested," said BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy.

"While we all admit that the states have a commitment to fight terror, this is a very peculiar situation when the states want to fight terror and when the Centre talks about fighting terror, there is a complete lack of faith in the Central government, their mechanism, their working style, there is a mistrust in the UPA," he added.

Several state governments, including the Trinamool Congress (TMC), which is the second largest in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance Government (19 Members of Parliament), joined the chorus against what is being seen as an attempt to infringe upon state rights.

The main task of the NCTC would be to ensure that the wide variety of security organizations in the country work in tandem, at least on issues related to terrorism.t will also have the power to seek information, including documents, reports, transcripts, and cyber information from any agency, including from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), National Investigation Agency, National Technical Research Organization, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and all seven central armed police forces including the National Security Guard (NSG).he body, which will function under the Intelligence Bureau, has been given its own operational wing with powers to arrest and conduct searches under Section 43A of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. (ANI)