Opposing NCTC Badal wants restructuring of Constitution

Speaking at the meeting of chief ministers on the issue of National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), Badal said, "a time has come to take a second look at the Constitution to bring it in tune with the changing realities and needs of the changing times."

"We have been advocating a restructuring of the Constitution to make it genuinely federal. I urge the Government of India to consider setting up of a new Constituency Assembly for this purpose", he said.

On NCTC, he said, "it is the latest example of Centre's assault on federalism and reminds one of the days of Emergency and we cannot accept it".

"It appears that the Centre has very systematically taken a series of decision to take away the powers of the states under one excuse or the other", the Punjab Chief Minister asserted.

Badal also said the fight against terrorism requires genuine national consensus and coordinating between the Centre and the states. "But by ignoring the states before setting up the NCTC, the Centre has actually created an atmosphere of mistrust and confrontation", he said.

Badal also sought to revisit and relook the Constitution. "The entire issue of Centre-State relations needs to be viewed in the context of the federal principle."

"First they amended the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, then set up the National Investigation Agency (NIA) under which the Centre can take up the investigation in any case and now, under the NCTC they can directly carry out operations, search and arrests through any central force without the consent and the knowledge of the state government", he added.