New Delhi, May 6 (IANS) Seizing on the United Progressive Alliance’s inability to push through its proposed anti-terror hub due to opposition by several non-Congress chief ministers, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Sunday accused the central government of trying to trample on the rights of the states.
BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said there was no contradiction between the fight against terror and the respect for the federal polity.
“Both can comfortably co-exist. The fight against terror would be fought purposefully only with cooperation, in coordination and active involvementof the state government and not by trampling upon their rights by the central government,” Prasad said.
He said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should explain why the fight against terror through POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act) was “compromised” for vote-bank politics.
“When you talk of fighting against terror with a constitutionally vulnerable instrument, BJP puts forth some questions to you,” Prasad said, adding he wondered why Gujarat was being denied a law on the lines of Maharashtra’s stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
He said that the proposed National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) was a body created by an executive order under the overall control of the Intelligence Bureau and termed the issue as “very serious.”
Prasad said the fight against terror was a national issue and the BJP would support the government on it. He hoped the UPA government would bring about amendments considering the reservations of several states on NCTC.
BJP veteran L.K. Advani also reacted to the opposition of several states to the proposal of NCTC in its present form, saying that the chief ministers had told the central government that they will not accept interference in their rights.
The central government was unable to forge consensus on NCTC at chief ministers meeting Saturday with several of them terming it as encroachment on rights of states.
