Home Minister Shivraj Patil has arguably been an unmitigated disaster for the country’s internal security. The Jaipur blasts, the latest in the series to rock the country, have revived at the Centre the idea of setting up a federal investigation agency for inter-state and transnational acts of crime and terrorism. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh threw open the much-needed concept for public debate on his return from Bhutan last Saturday. But Shivraj Patil, to be fair, had seized this idea and given a green signal to his ministry way back in June 2004.

It was the audacious Naxalite attack on the Koraput police armoury in Orissa in February 2004 that led to brainstorming on this concept in North Block, as the then police chiefs of Orissa and Andhra Pradesh levelled charges of laxity against each other. On June 14, 2004, the then Union home secretary put up a note to Patil mentioning the need for a federal agency. The note was put up after due diligence involving extensive discussions with the Intelligence Bureau and Central Bureau of Investigation chiefs, who came round to the proposal after spilling blood over turf in the meeting. The note to Patil recommended the establishment of a federal agency by amending the Constitution and empowering the new agency with special powers to tackle eight inter-state crimes including terrorism, left-wing extremism and narcotics. The federal agency was proposed to be set up by introducing a fresh clause to item nine (preventive detention for reasons connected with defence, foreign affairs, or the security of India; persons subjected thereof) on the Union List.

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