Nitish Kumar

Patna, Feb. 23: Nitish Kumar today rejected Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s overtures to chief ministers opposed to the proposed National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC).

“The NCTC is unacceptable. All the non-Congress chief ministers, including the Congress-supported Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, have opposed it for very valid reasons,” the Bihar chief minister said in the Assembly. “The setting up of the NCTC is an infringement on the federal rights of the states by curtailing their policing power.”

Singh had written to all chief ministers opposed to the proposed anti-terrorism hub and asked Union home minister P. Chidambaram to consult them on the issue.

Nitish used the occasion of thanksgiving on the governor’s address to the budget session of the House to summarily reject Singh’s letter.

“The Prime Minister has pleaded that it was the Intelligence Bureau (IB) that was formulating the NCTC and as such there is nothing to fear about the federal power of the states. But it is hardly convincing as the central intelligence agencies are in the habit of picking up people from the states without taking the state’s police into confidence,” he said.

Nitish criticised the central security agencies for coining the “Darbhanga module” or “Bihar module” of terrorism perpetrated by the Indian Mujahideen. “This is highly objectionable. How can a responsible agency describe a particular region or a community or a state as a module of terror?” he asked.

The “Darbhanga module” found a place in the lexicon of the central investigating agencies in the wake of the arrest of two terror suspects associated with Darbhanga in connection with the Mumbai serial blasts last year.

“The Constitution stipulates that the central agencies have to take the local police into confidence while carrying out raids or making arrests in the states. They are also supposed to present the arrested person/persons in the nearest court,” Nitish said. “The central agencies were indulging in objectionable acts even without the NCTC. What will they do when they are armed with NCTC?”

He sought the Opposition’s support on the issue, saying he was not opposed to action against terrorism.