High-level meeting on anti-terror body today

Amid escalating row over the Centre's proposal for National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), top Home Ministry officials will try to allay apprehensions about the anti-terror body at a crucial meeting of chief secretaries and police chiefs of all states here today.

During the meeting, Home Ministry officials led by Home Secretary RK Singh will try to explain the scope and functions of the National Counter Terrorism Centre and make it clear that the proposed anti-terror hub will not infringe on the states' power.

However, the meeting is unlikely to cut any ice as non- Congress chief ministers, who strongly objected to setting up of NCTC -- a brain-child of Home Minister P Chidambaram -- have been demanding discussions on the issue at the political level.

Over a dozen chief ministers have opposed the creation of NCTC on the ground that it would hurt the federal structure of the country.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa had asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to convene a meeting of chief ministers to discuss the issue.

In all probability, NCTC will be the top agenda at the scheduled meeting of chief ministers to be held here on April 16 if no headway is made in today's meeting.

In the wake of strong protests by non-Congress chief ministers, the Centre has put on hold the operationalisation of the NCTC from March 1 and decided to discuss with the state governments before going ahead with the plan.

Home Ministry officials are expecting participation of all states in the meeting. However, it is to be seen whether non-Congress-ruled states send their representatives,
considering their objection to official level meeting.

In his letter to 10 chief ministers, Home Minister P Chidambaram had assured that the "next steps" on NCTC would be taken only after the meeting of top officials of the states.
The Home Ministry officials are expected to allay the apprehensions of the states which said empowering NCTC with Section 43 (A) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act would infringe on the state's powers. Section 43(A) of UA(P)A gives an officer power to arrest and search.

Mr Chidambaram in his letter had said the powers conferred under Section 43 (A) of the UA(P) Act must be read with the duty under Section 43 (B) to produce the person or article
without unnecessary delay before the nearest police station (which will be under the state government). He also said the SHO of the police station will take further action in accordance with the provisions of the CrPC.

Mr Patnaik, who spearheaded the protests on the ground that it would erode states' powers, in his third letter on NCTC to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, had opposed the meeting of officials.

"It is imperative that instead of a meeting chaired by the Union Home Secretary, an immediate meeting of chief ministers may be called by you to address the concerns of the states on this very urgent matter regarding the security of the nation," he told the prime minister.

Ms Jayalalithaa and Janata Dal-U, which rules Bihar, had also expressed similar sentiments.

The crucial meeting was originally scheduled on March 9 but postponed to March 12 following requests from several  states which had conveyed their inability to attend the meeting due to Holi festival, short notice and pre-scheduled engagements.

A Major terror plot foiled; 2 LeT agents held

A major terror attack was foiled on Tuesday in the capital with security agencies arresting two Pakistan-based Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT) operatives who had planned to trigger explosions in crowded localities in the next few days.

Police said the attacks were "very imminent" and both the arrested, whose identity was withheld, were Indian citizens, one of whom was trained in Pakistan in bomb-making and using weapons.

"It is a very important breakthrough," Home Minister P Chidambaram told reporters today while complimenting security agencies.

Giving only brief details about the case as operation was still continuing to nab more terrorists of the module, Delhi Police Commissioner B K Gupta said the duo were apprehended from Tughlaqabad Extension in south Delhi yesterday following inputs from central intelligence agencies and cooperation of police in Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir.

"The arrest of LeT terrorists is a good catch," Gupta said adding the police has got "valuable evidence" from the memory card seized from the duo.

The two LeT militants have been identified as Ethisham and Shafaqat.

Investigators have seized a memory card, a matrix (code language used for communication), mobiles and explosives, including sulphuric acide, used for making bombs, P N Aggarwal, Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell), said.

Sources said five mobile phones were seized from the accused apart from the memory card which had footages of terror training camps and fabrication of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) besides how to fire AK-47s.

However, both Gupta and Aggarwal refused to provide the names of the arrested saying it could affect the ongoing operations to arrest "one or two more terrorists in the module".

They were produced in chambers before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Smita Garg who sent them to ten day police custody. Police ensured that the two did not attract any media attention and used the back door to enter and exit the court.

Aggarwal said one of the arrested persons has gone to Pakistan in December 2011 on valid travel documents and returned last month with a mission to carry out a terror strike in Delhi in the very near future.

Asked whether the arrested persons were involved in the recent attack on Israeli embassy car, he said, he did not think so.

Earlier, Chidambaram said, "there was no VVIP on their target."

"They were planning to detonate a bomb or more than one bomb in crowded localities," he said, adding more details would come after their detailed questioning.

Some more people have been detained in this connection, he said.

West Bengal Chisef Minister Mamata to meet PM, NCTC on agenda

Amid growing chorus against the National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC), West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is expected to take up the issue with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday.

Mamata and other CMs - Naveen Patnaik, Rama Singh, Nitish Kumar and J Jayalalithaa – are opposed to the anti-terror body; being set up under the Intelligent Bureau (IB), on the grounds that the powers imparted to NCTC would undermine the federal structure.

Last week, the TMC chief had skipped the inauguration programme of the NSG hub in Kolkata by Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, apparently to register her opposition to the NCTC.

The NCTC is scheduled to be fully operational by March 1.

The West Bengal CM may also raise the demand for a financial package for the state during her interaction with PM.

Mamata Banerjee will skip inauguration ceremony of NSG hub today

A day after opposing the proposed National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) along with six other chief ministers, Mamata Banerjee will on today skip the inauguration ceremony of a National Security Guards (NSG) hub near here.

The NSG hub at Badu in North 24 Parganas district will be inaugurated by Home Minister P Chidambaram, who had mooted the idea to set up an anti-terror intelligence hub, named NCTC.

The development comes as another setback to the Congress-TMC alliance which has been going through a rough patch for quite some time.

Banerjee on Friday, along with her counterparts from Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha and Tamil Nadu, came out against a the setting up of NCTC from March 1, saying such a powerful body would infringe upon the rights of states.

In Andhra Pradesh, TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu also spoke out against the anti-terror body.

The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government tried to play down the issue, with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee saying a decision would be taken after studying the criticism.

Led by the most vocal Naveen Patnaik of Odisha, the chief ministers declared that they were against the NCTC because they had not been consulted before New Delhi notified it.

In separate letters to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, six of them complained that the proposed NCTC would infringe on the federal structure and the rights of state governments.

The powerful anti-terror agency, a brainchild of Chidambaram, will integrate and analyse inputs on terror threats in India. It becomes functional on March 1.

It allows Central government agencies to make arrests or searches in terrorism-hit states without seeking permission from their governments.

SC to pronounce verdict against Chidambaram today

A special CBI court on today will decide on the alleged role of Union Home Minister P Chidambaram in the 2G scam on a petitioner’s plea seeking to make him an accused in the case.

The court has deferred pronouncement of its order till today noon.

An in camera proceeding is going on inside the court where only the petitioner, his wife and his private secretary and one more council are allowed.

The petitioner alleged that Chidambaram was equally culpable like former Telecom Minister A Raja as he also had a role in deciding the spectrum pricing and allowing telecom companies to off-load shares to foreign firms.

With the Supreme Court leaving the issue to be decided by the trial court, the ball is now in the court of Special CBI Judge OP Saini.

The court, on February 1, also halted for two days the ongoing day-to-day trial in the case for writing the much-awaited order.

A bench of justices GS Singhvi and AK Ganguly, which asked the lower court not to get influenced by its decision, had also refused to direct CBI to "investigate Chidambaram".

The apex court, which came down heavily on former telecom minister A Raja and cancelled 122 2G licenses, however, did not find any fault on the part of the Prime Minister and then Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

The petitioner, who concluded arguments in the trial court in support of his plea, had said the evidence brought on record, prima facie established that Chidambaram was also culpable like Raja in the case.

Union Cabinet to fine-tune Lokpal Bill today

The Union Cabinet is expected to consider Monday the much-awaited Lokpal Bill that is likely to bring Prime Minister under the proposed anti-graft ombudsman with certain conditions and provide for creation of an independent prosecution directorate.

The bill, which is expected to be tabled in Parliament before the end of the current session, is being fine-tuned by an informal group of ministers comprising Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Home Minister P Chidambaram, Law Minister Salman Khurshid and MoS Personnel V Narayanasamy.

The Cabinet, which met last night, saw some deliberations on the legislation but the detailed note on the subject is expected to formally come up before Cabinet meeting today, possibly in the evening.

Prior to that, the ministers concerned are expected to brief Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the changes being made in the Lokpal Bill, sources said.

While the bill will see incorporation of recommendations made by the Parliamentary Standing Committee which examined it, the government has made it clear that it was open to other ideas that emanated at the all-party meeting convened by the Prime Minister on Wednesday.

"You all know that how many days are left (for Parliament session). We have literally worked day and night to ensure that we meet the deadlines," Law Minister Salman Khurshid told reporters today.

"Let us just get the Bill done and bring it to the Cabinet so that it can be brought before Parliament as quickly as possible," he said amid the looming threat of Anna Hazare to go on hunger strike from December 27 if the legislation is not enacted by then.

Referring to the various proposals floating around, Khurshid said, "the Government is not taking up anything as outstanding view but fine-tuning keeping in mind the basic structure of the law... to ensure that we take public confidence with us because we are also determined and committed to a very powerful Lokpal Bill."

Notwithstanding the demands for bringing CBI under Lokpal, the government is averse to this and instead is contemplating a provision for creating an independent "Directorate of Prosecution", carving it out from CBI.

Accordingly, the Bill is likely to suggest that the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act be amended, sources said.

The bill is also expected to provide for removal of the Lokpal Chairman or member if a joint complaint is made by at least 100 MPs.

The legislation also is likely to provide for 50 per cent reservation to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, OBCs, minorities and women in the Lokpal bench on the lines of demand raised by almost all the parties, except BJP, at Wednesday's meeting, the sources said.

With regard to demand for inclusion of Group 'C' employees, the sources said discussions are underway to create an "appropriate mechanism" for this.

One of the suggestions in this regard is placing them under the purview of the CVC who would be asked to report the progress on anti-corruption cases to Lokpal. The Parliamentary Committee had recommended reservation for SCs, STs, OBCs, minorities and women in the Search Committee which will assist the Selection Committee to select Lokpal. However, it was silent on reservation in the Lokpal.

If reservation is provided in the Lokpal panel, it will become the first Constitutional body to have the provision.

On the issue of PM, the Standing Committee had refused to take a position but recommended three options – inclusion without exception and qualifications, inclusion with no exclusionary caveats but after demitting office and inclusion with exclusions on issues like national security and foreign affairs and some others.

Making CBI, or its anti-corruption wing, a part of Lokpal still remains a contentious issue.

The Lokpal Bill introduced in the Lok Sabha in August this year says that "Lokpal shall constitute an Investigation Wing for the purpose of conducting investigation of any offence alleged to have been committed by a public servant punishable under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988."

Several parties, however, are insisting that CBI's anti-corruption wing should be under Lokpal to give it teeth. On the inclusion of group C employees under the ambit of Lokpal, one of the options with the government is recommendation of the Parliamentary Standing Committee which had recommended a "broad supervisory fusion at the apex level" by some changes in the CVC Act.

"The CVC should be made to file periodical reports, say every three months, to the Lokpal in respect of action taken for these class C and D categories.

"On these reports, the Lokpal shall be entitled to make comments and suggestions for improvement and strengthening the functioning of CVC, which in turn, shall file, appropriate action taken reports with the Lokpal," it had recommended. It had also recommended "appropriate increase" in the strength of the CVC manpower.

Chidambaram responsible for attack on Ramdev at Ramlila Maidan

The amicus curiae appointed by the Supreme Court has found that Mr Chidambaram, as Home Minister, ordered the eviction of the yoga icon from his massive sit-in protest at Ramlila Maidan. Late at night, as thousands lay sleeping, the Delhi Police lashed out with batons to dispel the crowd, and to track down Baba Ramdev. He disappeared, and was found hours later, disguised as a woman, near the railway station.

Rajeev Dhawan, who is the amicus curiae or senior lawyer assigned to assist the court, says that it was upon Mr Chidambaram's advice that the police intervened.

Mr Dhawan also said that records, which include Mr Chidambaram's interviews at the time show that the crackdown on  the camp had been planned by the government well in advance. The yoga teacher had been in negotiations with senior government ministers over how they should recover black money stashed abroad. The yoga guru  violated an assurance he had made to the government that he would not begin a hunger strike. Hours after he began his fast, supported by thousands of the followers who are customary at his camps, the police arrived.

Mr Dhawan quoted from documents including a press release from Mr Chidambaram's office on June 8 that said, "A decision was taken that Baba Ramdev would not be allowed to organize any procession or to undertake any fast at the Ramlila Maidan ground. If he persisted in his efforts to do so, he will be directed to remove himself from Delhi." Mr Dhawan says that, "This suggests that the decision was taken at the Home Minister's  level, but suspended while talks with Ramdev were on... and when talks failed, the police enforced the decision."

The case will next be heard on January 9. 

The Supreme Court is studying the incident "suo-moto" - the judges said they decided to get involved based on media reports of the crackdown.