India mulls investigative agency to check terror

NEW DELHI, May 21 (UPI) -- Worried over its failure to effectively stop the growing incidence of terror attacks, Maoist violence and white-collar crime, India is considering the establishment of a federal agency to investigate crimes having countrywide implications.

Successive Indian governments, police, security and intelligence agencies have deliberated establishing a federal investigating agency but have failed to reach a consensus, even after over five years of discussion, because India's state governments say such a federal agency would undermine their authority.

"The time had come to recognize such an entity as federal crime and that a separate agency was needed to investigate all crimes with multi-state aspects, such as terrorism and white-collar crime," said Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Singh floated the idea in reference to last week's bombings in the northern city of Jaipur which killed more than 60 people and wounded many. Singh said terrorist elements wanted to create communal disturbances and prevent the normalization of relations between India and Pakistan.

"We have to be mindful of these nefarious designs while finding effective means of dealing with the problem," he said.

The federal Ministry of Home Affairs has emphasized the urgent need for a federal investigating agency, arguing that handling serious transnational crimes like terrorism cannot be effectively done by a single agency of a particular state.

Singh is expected to take up the issue on May 28 during the meeting of the United Progressive Alliance, the coalition that currently rules India, and its allies. Some of the key allies of the ruling coalition and outside supporters, including the Communists, are also averse to having a separate federal agency other than the existing Central Bureau of Investigation.

Singh denied that the recent spate of terror attacks reflected a weakening of India's intelligence agencies. "It is certainly true that new challenges have arisen, the technology of terror has been miniaturized, and the terrorists have the advantage of surprise," Singh said.

The Ministry of Home Affairs, in a recent meeting of the chief ministers on internal security, clarified that establishing a separate investigating agency does not mean there was no room for improving the functioning of the existing intelligence agencies. "There is an element of surprise, and we have to recognize this reality," Minister of Home Affairs Shivraj Patil told the chief ministers.

With investigations into the Jaipur bombings leading nowhere, the government seems optimistic that India's states might agree to a national-level agency, and it has initiated a move in this direction. Following the meeting of the UPA and Left parties, it plans to convene a meeting of all the political parties and later another conference of chief ministers on internal security to make one more bid for a consensus on the issue.

A government-backed committee on police reforms, headed by noted constitutional expert Soli Sorabjee, has also in its report strongly favored the creation of a separate federal agency to investigate serious crimes.

The issue of a federal investigation agency again figured in Monday's meeting of the parliamentary consultative committee linked to the Home Affairs Ministry. In the meeting Patil argued his case strongly and tried to allay the fears of the members that it would not undermine the authority of the state governments.

National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan, in briefing the cabinet security committee on the status of the Jaipur bombings investigation, was critical of the intelligence agencies and said there was inadequate coordination between federal and state intelligence agencies.

"Indeed, there is an urgent need of having a separate investigating agency to probe the terror-related crimes. But the roots of India's terrorism go much beyond the intelligence gathering and lack of coordination between different intelligence and security agencies," said Mahendra Ved, an expert in internal security matters. Ved said the government, when formulating the structure of such an agency, should take measures to avert any conflict between the federal government and the states.

Global terror groups have taken advantage of the weaknesses of the Indian polity. The political parties, for their own purposes, do not rise above political considerations to collectively tackle the problem.

The Interior Ministry is presenting the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States as a model for a similar Indian agency and is proposing that the new agency, like the FBI, won't require the permission of state governments to investigate a specified list of crimes, said a senior ministry official.

This particular clause in the draft caused a stir when it was presented before the chief ministers on internal security. They objected to it, saying it amounts to a federal agency superseding state administration, thus violating the basics of the Indian Constitution.