One may disagree with the thought of Chief Minister   of comparing National Counter Terrorism Centre ( NCTC) with  the  now much in debate Armed Forces Special Powers Act, but there are certain things  that need to be looked at with  greater depth. Chief Minister’s plea is both  logical and rhetoric at the same time. He is trying to use the current  mood in the non-UP run states  to his advantage  in  Jammu and Kashmir, like Ms. Mamta Banerjee, Chief Minister of  West Bengal. The common point  between the  two is that both are allies of the UPA government, and have ministerial representation as well. Mamta has been more categoricval in opposing the NCTC because she thinks it is an assault on the federalism, the argument that  chief ministers of other staters , particularly those run by Bhartiya Janta Party and other non-UPA men  and women, Naveen Patnaik of  Odisha and Ms. Jayalalitha of Tamil Nadu. 
Omar  was looking  at the   issue with  one eye at his constituency in Kashmir, where he has promised the gradual removal of the AFSPA, and the other at the UPA, where his party is one of the constituents.  Unlkike  Mamta’s Trinamool Congress,  Omar doesn’t have the luxury of having a simple or clear majority of his party in the state legislative Assembly. His government depends on the support that Congress has “committed” to him for a six-year tenure.. And at the same time, it needs to be appreciated that in his case, he is also looking at the  coming elections, now in dual capacity as  Chief Minister and also as “ working president), de facto President of National Conference, as his father Farooq Abdullah is not keeping good health  and also is unable to devote 100 per cent of his time to the organisation. 
The second reality is  that Omar  has painted with a darker and black brush  AFSPA  and had announced even  the time line by  which he  claimed, he would do away with the Armed Forces Special Powers Act now  in force in the Kashmir Valley  for almost 22 years.  This is his commitment to the people in  Kashmir, that he would get the whole of the State  rid of this, what he calls, draconian  law.  Therefore, it was politically correct  on his part to oppose the  NCTC in its present form. 
The Chief Minister  reminded the participants  at the Chief Ministers’ conference  in New Delhi on Saturday last that NCTC has been mandated with powers for carrying out independent operations but with the flexibility and option to inform the State Government after the operation has been launched/culminated and after the arrests have been effected. “This provision may need to be modified to the extent to make it mandatory for the Director NCTC to have prior consultation with the DGP and have joint operations with the State Police”, Omar said. This is where he  talks logic  and  he  took it further when he underlined that the proposed NCTC essentially comprises three parts – “Collection and Dissemination of Intelligence”, “Analysis” and “Operations”.  He said, the first two parts i.e.  Collection and Dissemination of Intelligence” and “Intelligence Analysis” are already being done by the Central Agencies through Multi Agency Centre (MAC) which was set up in December, 2008. “Therefore, while the State Government appreciates the role of ‘Collection and Dissemination of Intelligence’ and its ‘Analysis’ by the proposed NCTC, the need for vesting NCTC with the powers to undertake independent Operations must be revisited so as to make it consultative and also prescribe joint operations with the State Police as the preferred methodology to obtain the desired outcomes”, he said  to make things clearer for those who are not aware of the ramifications  of such laws. Omar, for that matter is experiencing such situations on daily basis. And that was clear when he  referred to the unified headquarters in  Jammu and Kashmir, it’s another matter that the UHQ has not metn in the state for almost six months. “the Unified Headquarters in Jammu and Kashmir –the Apex Body for Coordinating the anti-militant operations – has already laid down SOP for operations under which Army and  the security forces conduct the operational searches and cordons with the State Police being fully associated with the same. We can have similar arrangements for NCTC”.   But that depends when  there is regular interaction, not once or twice a year basis.

Lastupdate on : Mon, 7 May 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 7 May 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 8 May 2012 00:00:00 IST