“When you talk of fighting against terror with a constitutionally vulnerable instrument, BJP puts forth some questions to you,” said BJP chief spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad, while asking Prime Minister as to why POTA was repealed and why MCOCA was allowed in Maharashtra and its replica not permitted in Gujarat.

The BJP also raised objections to UPA government fostering fresh ties with Pakistan despite its “failure” to act against Mumbai terror attack perpetrators who continued to roam around freely in that country.

“Why was POTA repealed. POTA was an instrument that was needed by the security forces in the fight against terror. POTA has been declared to be constitutionally valid by the Supreme Court. Yet in your declaration you said we shall repeal POTA… The fight against terror was compromised at the altar of vote-bank politics,” Prasad said.

He said NCTC was a body created by an executive order under the overall control of the Intelligence Bureau having complete secrecy and no Parliamentary accountability. “That is why this issue is very serious,” he said.

Terming NCTC as an attack on the country’s federal structure, Prasad said, “BJP firmly believes that there is no contradiction between the fight against terror and the respect for the federal polity of our Constitutional democracy. Both can comfortably co-exist. The fight against terror would be fought purposefully only with cooperation, in coordination and active involvement of the state government and not by trampling upon their rights by the central government,” he said.

BJP veteran L K Advani said, “Considering the views put forward by dissenting CMs, I hope the Government will respect country’s federal structure provided for by the Constitution.”

He also said if the Centre tried to weaken this structure and empower itself by curbing the powers of states, it will not be tolerated by the states.

The past week has witnessed intense speculation in India over who would occupy the Rashtrapati Bhawan next, with Mukherjee and the current Vice President Hamid Ansari being touted as the main contenders.

However, little has been said officially by the ruling UPA over the issue. Mukherjee too has refused to comment anything on the matter.

The Finance Minister was posed with the critical question during an interaction with senior editors in Dhaka. “We are delighted that your name was proposed for Indian Presidency? What’s your comment?” asked one of the senior journalists.

Mukherjee laughed at the suggestion, before saying that he himself was “in the dark” on the question.

“I am afraid I do not know. In our system of decision making, unless a decision is taken nobody discloses it officially. So, I am in the dark as you are,” replied Mukherjee, who is often called the UPA government’s ‘trouble shooter’.

Mukherjee, 76, arrived in Dhaka on Saturday evening on a two-day tour to join the 150th birth anniversary celebrations of Rabindranath Tagore.

His comments, that gave no indication on what is going on in the back channel deliberations in the Congress and the UPA, came days after he had asked the media not to speculate on the issue.

Earlier, while on his way to Manila where he attended the 45th Annual Meeting of Asian Development Bank’s Board of Governors, Mukherjee had dismissed these reports as speculation. “It is speculative. I don’t want to comment on it,” he had said.

Nearly three months after the Union Home Ministry notified setting up of the NCTC, its fate is still on the block.

Ten chief ministers, led by Mamata Banerjee, Naveen Patnaik and J Jayalalithaa had called the NCTC a blow to the federal structure. Even though the Union Home Ministry has sent a revised Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for Saturday’s meet, the government’s own allies appear far from convinced.

“Every state has a geographical boundary. No one can cross anyone’s boundaries. So the Centre can not cross our boundaries. This is against federal structure,” Mamata had said.

The bone of contention is the power to unilaterally search, seize and arrest that Section 43 A of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act gives to NCTC.

The CMs say that law and order is a state subject and a central body like the NCTC cannot carry out arrests without the state police.

In a climbdown, the revised SOP of the Home Ministry says that only in exceptional circumstances, will the NCTC carry out unilateral arrests. For all routine actions, the state DGP or the head of the ATS will be kept in the loop.

Sources say that the BJP may reconsider its opposition after the amendments.

From the DGPs conference to the internal security meet to the prime minister himself writing to protesting CMs, the central government has taken multiple steps in the past two months to break the NCTC logjam, so far without success. Will Saturday’s meet find a breakthrough or will national security fall prey to political realities?

NCTC: Who stands where

While all the chief ministers of the Congress-ruled states are likely to support the NCTC, the BJP is also likely to tone down its protests after the revised SOP.

However, among the non-UPA parties, the AIADMK, the BJD and the JDU have been most vocal in their opposition and so has UPA ally Mamata Banerjee.

“Singhvi should be hanged if found guilty,” Anna Hazare said replying to a reporter’s question.

Anna Hazare is currently touring Maharashtra to campaign for a stronger Lokayukta Act in the state.

Singhvi quit as Congress spokesperson after the scandal broke out, but maintained that the CD was fake.

Anna Hazare also said if a strong Lokpal comes into existence, corrupt officers would go to jail.

Government officers should be made to disclose their assets on a government website, he added.

Said Thackeray, “When the state is facing a drought, what is the need to go on such a trip? What great result is going to come from this study tour?”

Anti corruption crusader Anna Hazare said, “The state is under a mountain of debt. Whose money are they spending? Poorest of poor pay taxes… and they are spending their money just like that!”

While the state has so far spent nearly Rs 24 lakh for relief to drought-affected villages and plans to ask the Centre for more funds, it will be spending Rs 55 lakhs on the study tour. That is two-third of the nearly Rs 3-3.5 lakh spent for the 12-15 day tour on each of the 25 MLA.

The remaining one-third of the cost will be borne by the MLAs.

While it is common practice for MLAs to go on such study tours, it does boil down to a question of propriety, for a need to undertake such foreign trips when the state is facing a drought crisis.

“Those are speculating things (on his name for president post). I don’t make any comment on that,” said the veteran Congress troubleshooter when asked about his prospects for being the next President.

This comes even as UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi has said that the government has not yet finalised any name for the post.

Meanwhile, perhaps with a quid pro quo in mind, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is slated to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday to discuss presidential candidates and also a financial bailout package for her state.

On Thursday evening, she met Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.

All eyes are now on whether the Prime Minister can assure her a loan waiver for the state.

The West Bengal Chief Minister is also scheduled to meet the Prime Minister on Friday, that’s a day before the meeting on the crucial National Counter Terrorism Centre issue.

Mamata on Wednesday met Union Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath. There was no official word from either side on what transpired at the meeting between Nath and Mamata but it is understood that the two discussed coming Presidential elections, for which Congress is keen to get TMC’s support, and urban development projects in West Bengal.

The BJP and JMM are still at odds over his nomination. The Election Commission (EC) had countermanded the elections following allegations of horse trading.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday had refused to interfere in the Rajya Sabha election in Jharkhand. The apex court said it will not put a stay on the biennial election to the two Rajya Sabha seats, since the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigation in the case is still on.

The Election Commission has already written to the government for a CBI probe into the events that had led to countermand of March 30 Rajya Sabha elections in Jharkhand. The decision came after the Jharkhand High Court had asked the Commission to constitute a probe.

Food and Consumer Affairs Minister KV Thomas, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and PMEAC Chairman C Rangarajan will attend the meeting, sources said.

The Prime Minister will hold another meeting to sort out objections raised by Pawar on issues related to export of farm commodities like sugar, cotton and milk products. Besides Thomas, Pawar and Rangarajan, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma is likely to attend this meeting.

The high-level meeting has been postponed twice.

“Two meetings are scheduled for tomorrow. One on foodgrains management, and the other on sugar and other exports,” sources said.

They added that the Food Ministry has worked out a plan to distribute 14.5 million tonnes of foodgrains to ration card holders and offload another 2.5 million tonnes in the open market. The ministry has proposed to incentivise wheat export.

Sources said the Food Minister KV Thomas wants to discuss these proposals, which the panel of ministers had rejected, with the Prime Minister as it involved huge subsidy burden.

Out of 14.5 million tonnes for ration card holders, the ministry has proposed distribution of 8 million tonnes of additional foodgrains to BPL families, 6.5 million tonnes to APL families.

“Till Kejriwal, Sisodia and Kiran Bedi are part of Team Anna, I cannot think of meeting him (Hazare),” Thackeray told reporters on the sidelines of a function in Mumbai.

Last week, Thackeray had refused to meet Hazare, who held discussions with leaders of various political parties to mobilise support for a strong Lokayukta in the state. He has also questioned the relevance of the anti-graft stir launched by Hazare and his team members.

The Sena chief said the media is obsessed with news related to the Gandhian, who on Tuesday launched a statewide tour on the Lokayukta issue. “Switch on any news channel and you will find them showing news only about Anna Hazare.”

“Today journalism is dominated by paid news. There is no maturity left in journalism,” he said.

Speaking on the Rajya Sabha nomination to Sachin Tendulkar, he said the post of MP was not befitting the stature of the cricket icon. “I would have liked had he got Bharat Ratna. What is the use in giving him a low-level post.”

Blaming the Congress-led Democratic Front Government for the drought-like situation in the state, he alleged that most of the Ministers are busy watching ‘lavani’ (traditional folk dance of Maharashtra). “They take nap in Mantralaya (state secretariat.)”

Thackeray also targeted Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan over his personal life and getting Padma Shri award.