Amendment moved by BJP on NCTC falls in Rajya Sabha

Amendments moved by the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Left to the President's address against the National Counterterrorism Center was defeated in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.

The opposition, which includes members from the BJP, Janata Dal-United, Communist Party of India-Marxist and Communist Party of India walked out of the Rajya Sabha expressing unhappiness over the prime minister's reply on the issue.

The amendment fell in the upper house by 105 to 82. Both the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samajwadi Party voted with the government on the issue of National Counterterrorism Center.

M Venkaiah Naidu, former president of Bhartiya Janata Party described the passage of the National Counter Terrorism Centre bill in the Rajya Sabha as an attack on the federal structure of the nation.

Answering questions from reporters, Naidu said, "This is a direct attack on the federalism of India". He had moved the amendment on behalf of his party which was defeated by 105 votes to 82.

Sitaram Yechuri of the CPM said that the opposition parties were only asking the government of India to take the chief ministers of all the states and union territories on board while taking any decision on NCTC.

Trinamool Congresss did not take part in the voting leaving UPA II shocked, particularly after Prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh had conceded to the demands of the chief minister of West Bengal.

Replying to the debate on the Presidential address, Dr Singh said that the government would evolve a consensus on the NCTC. Arun Jaitley, leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha, said that there would be no need to move amendments if the prime minister assured the house that the chief ministers of the states would be taken aboard while taking any decision, as law and order falls under the jurisdiction of the states.

S S Ahluwalia of the BJP, who has been reportedly been denied a Rajya Sabha ticket from Jharkhand, argued that if the states were ignored then there would be no federal structure.

Ahluwalia said that even in the United States and the United Kingdom the counter terrorism centre has never been put under the charge of director of their internal intelligence agencies. "IB has no power to arrest any accused and it is the state police or CBI which does this job," he said. 

SP with four members and BSP with 17 voted with the government. TMC with six members left the House before the voting.

Four more amendments on the issue of Sri Lankan Tamils were also put to vote on the insistence of CPI and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in which the government won securing 84 votes of the total 94 present as members from Left and NDA had already walked out.

Subsequently the Motion of Thanks was adopted by voice vote.

Replying to the debate on the Thanks Motion, Singh earlier said the next step on operationalising the NCTC would be taken after full consultations and noted that a meeting of chief ministers has been convened in this regard on April 16.

Making a strong pitch for the NCTC (National Counter Terrorism Centre), he said it was an important step in fighting terrorism and left-wing extremism and cited the abduction of two Italians in Odisha as a "grim reminder" of the danger posed by these to national security.

With inputs from PTI