The JD(U) has taken strong exception to the meeting of state DGPs and chief secretaries called by Union home secretary in New Delhi. The party said a dangerous precedence was being set by sidelining the elected state governments and making attempt to reach a consensus on the complicated and sensitive issue of the composition of National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) through the bureaucracy. The meeting is scheduled for March 12.

"The chief ministers of various states had raised objection over the NCTC following which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had promised to take the states into confidence and had also deferred March 1 as the date of making the NCTC operational. It is very surprising that neither the PM nor the Union home minister are calling the meeting but a bureaucrat has been entrusted to call the meeting of the officials," JD(U) national spokesperson Shivanand Tiwary said in a statement on Sunday. Stating that the move posed a serious challenge to the state governments, Tiwary suggested the move should be opposed tooth and nail. He alleged that the Congress was attempting to run the affairs of the states through the bureaucracy by ignoring the existence of the elected governments. Under the democratic republic system a meeting of the chief ministers should have been called by the PM to discuss the sensitive issue of national security and counter-terrorism threadbare, address the genuine concern shown by the states and reach a consensus, Tiwary said.

Tiwary further pointed out that the Union home secretary R K Singh, a Bihar cadre IAS officer, who after the protest by a number of chief ministers had said that the states' consent for NCTC was not needed. "After this statement how can one believe that the meeting is for reaching a consensus or just imposing the Centre's unilateral decision," he said.

Tiwary said all the state governments should tell the Centre in unison that under the federal system and Indian constitution, the states are run by the elected governments not bureaucrats

TOI, Patna