Displaying uncharacteristic aggressive stance against the centre, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar cautioned the union government against framing any rules pertaining to internal security that dilute the power of democratically-elected state governments.

Addressing a gathering of chief ministers on internal security, in New Delhi on Tuesday, Kumar reminded the union government of its responsibility in initiating measures to dispel corruption and inflation, which, he said, were a matter of serious internal security concern. "It is not enough merely to tackle crime and incidents of violence," said Kumar, "Law and order and public peace are also affected by general public opinion - the spreading perception of widespread corruption and uncontrolled inflation is of serious concern to our internal security."

In his first visit to the capital after winning the assembly elections in Bihar, Kumar made a calculated attack on the centre and made it clear that any police reforms aimed at diluting the power of the state government in matters related to the appointment of the DGP or fixing the term of police officers would be unacceptable. In a way, the chief minister appeared to be at variance with the supreme court which has laid down guidelines for police reforms in states in order to free it from political influence.

While maintaining that he was all for modernisation and reforms of the police to make it an independent instrument to maintain law and order, he argued that it would be wrong to make the police unaccountable to the political executive. “The infamous Bhagalpur blindings case of 1979-80 is a prime example,” Kumar reminded, “The state ultimately becomes the whipping boy in such a situation and gets a much larger share of the blame than the police itself. The elected government is finally responsible for maintenance of law and order. However, responsibility and accountability must go hand in hand. Therefore, the elected government has to maintain a fine balance between grant of functional autonomy to police organisations and yet keep it subject to overall control of a democratically elected government having the mandate of the people as enshrined in the constitution of India.”

Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, on his part, took on the central bureau of investigation for targeting and singling out his state. "As reported in the media, organisations like the CBI have been castigating the state's law and order situation, making observation about highly communalised atmosphere and despising democratically elected members and state government," Modi said

The Gujarat chief minister said the CBI's attitude did not augur well for the federal structure of governance

On the issue of police reforms, Modi said the supreme court order in Prakash Singh Vs Union of India would lead to "creation of new power centres" in the forms of security commission and police complaints authority which may become difficult to be handled even by the judiciary.

He said police administration and law order were state subjects under the constitution and that state legislatures were competent to make appropriate laws in this regard. Modi said model acts circulated by the centre were welcome for ensuring uniform policies across the country.

"However, in our constitutional frame work where federal structure has been adopted and separation of power is hallmark of a vibrant governance system in a democracy, directions as given in aforesaid order of the honourable supreme court will upset the scheme of governance and police administration," he said.

Modi asked the centre to urge the apex court to allow states to enact appropriate laws.

He also lamented the centre's "poor response" to suggestions made during previous chief ministers' conferences on internal security.

"I am constrained to mention that even after lot of deliberation held in this august body every year, policy issues discussed in earlier conferences are not being addressed meaningfully and effectively," Modi said.