NEW DELHI: India's federal structure is being carved into two halves, with India's federal regime and chief ministers of its states splitting over the issue of a national counter terror organization, which the states claim is being ramroded by the union government in violation of India's federal-state ethos. Chief minister of non Congress ruled states like Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Gujarat, Punjab have come together to possibly thwart attempts by the ruling Congress-led coalition government at the Center to impose the National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC), a comprehensive body to combat terror apparatus in the country on them. While Navin Patnaik has said that the meeting of chief ministers hosted by Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalitha was only courtesy meeting, all the chief ministers have in the past openly criticized the Congress move to impose the NCTC on state governments. “I am here to pay courtesy call on madam J Jayalalithaa. Madam is an old family friend of my father, so I came here to pay a courtesy call,” Patnaik told reporters in New Delhi. Jayalalitha at a meeting of chief ministers on internal security, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday has already warned against what she called an “emerging pattern”, where the central government was abrogating the powers of the state government and showing it scant respect, towards the passage of legislative bills. “Lack of consultation with the states and failure to take the states into confidence is a cogent commentary on the system of governance in the Center,” she said.
