Now, both the central and state governments are trying to pass the buck on to each other. This is the common happening in India after each terror strike. No politician wants to take on the responsibility. There is also no accountability either with the ruling class or the police forces they control. No wonder India is seen by the world as soft state lacking political will to fight terror.

IM gets its supply of explosives, digital detonators and arms from ISI. Money comes to it from Saudi Arabia, UAE, Pakistan and ISI. It is fast spreading its tentacles on pan India basis. It has already established its modules and sleeper cells in the states of UP, Bihar, Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, MP, Gujarat and Delhi.

Time has come that this subject must be dealt with by professionals and not by Netas or their Babu advisors. Towards this end, the Concept of National Counter Terror Center (NCTC) mooted by Mr. Chidambaram during his time as Home Minister is worth implementing.

The job of NCTC will be to collect all the intelligence emanating from various agencies, collate them, analyze them and then pass it on to the state police and agencies in an actionable form. It will also have a data base of all terrorists. It also must have powers to carry out surprise searches and arrest any of these terrorists hiding anywhere in India. Currently, states are opposing search and arrest powers of NCTC as they say it amounts to infringement in their constitutional rights. Law and order being state subject. States also don’t want this to be part of the Intelligence Bureau, as proposed by Centre.

The National Investigating Agency (NIA) which was raised after 26/11 with the express aim of investigating all cases of terror in India almost four years back, till date lacks the trained manpower and dedicated infrastructure. There is ongoing turf war between NIA, IB and the state Police ATS. They do not even share actionable intelligence. NIA is not given all terror cases automatically. They have to wait for Home Ministry nod to proceed. Surely this is not the way we can fight terror.

Our political masters must understand that organized terror can’t be dubbed as law and order problem. With the use of modern explosives by these terrorists with devastating destructive power, this is basically a war waged on India by Pakistan by other means. Indian States with limited means at their disposal as also a totally corrupt and politicized police are not capable of fighting this proxy war alone. Netas must bury their differences for a national cause and amend the constitution so that the subject of terror becomes parallel responsibility of both centre and States. This will fix the accountability. In addition a strong anti terror law like POTA with necessary safeguards must be enacted.

Also, NCTC should be made a nodal agency; independent of IB. NIA should function under it along with NAT Grid. The State Police ATS should also be accountable to NCTC. This way a common front on terror is formed. To ensure that there is no political interference in its functioning, the NCTC should be answerable only to Parliament with a committee of all party MPs overseeing its function. If the politicians dither in implementing this, then people of India will have to force their hands. After all it the common man who dies in the streets in these terror strikes and not our well protected netas.