NCTC or National Counter Terrorism Center is a proposed federal anti-terror organisation to be created in India on the lines of NCTC in USA with some changes to make it more suited to Indian counter terrorism efforts.
The proposal gained much significance after the 26/11 attacks as it was strongly felt that India lacked a federal agency with real time intelligence inputs of actionable value specifically with respect to terrorism. Much blame had been on the states which failed to act on intelligence inputs provided prior to the mumbai attacks.
However, the states themselves were of the opinion that the inputs were highly vague in nature and no sufficient pre-emptive action could be taken solely on these inputs.
Hence, P.Chidambaram, who took over the mantle of India’s home ministry from the highly criticized Shiv raj Patil in nov 2008 stated that one of his first tasks was to establish a strong federal counter terror agency that could co-ordinate with the states effectively by properly integrating intelligence inputs with the states.
The agency will derive its powers from the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1967. It will include among other things, the power to carry out searches and issue arrest warrants throughout India in the interest of preventing terror attacks to that extent. The idea has run into rough weather as many non-congress ruled states have taken strong exception to the proposed powers as they feel it will be antagonistic toward the federal structure of India and violate certain rights of the states.
Also it was felt that the nature of US federal structure and Indian Federal structure vastly differs and hence suitable amendments needed to be in place for the agency to be effective and at the same time respecting the constitutional rights of the states.
Further, Many anti-terror experts including B.Raman (RAW )pointed out there are significant loopholes that can stil be used in selective targeting for political ends. As of now, the UPA govt says it is firm in its decision to set up NCTC and shall resolve all concerns amicably.