One more blast, same old statements

As usual, following the terror attack, blame game has started among politicians

One more blast, same old statements

As usual, following the terror attack, blame game has started among politicians

One more bomb blast and no perceptible change in behaviour or statements. One can easily predict our politicians, who react the same after any such bomb blast. As usual, politicians did not wait a minute before starting the blame game.

Same cause: Home Minister P Chidambaram

They also seemed to be competing with each other to be the first to visit the spot and hospitals, without caring a bit about the hassles they created for security agencies and hospital staff. Picking holes in the government stand on the issue, main Opposition party BJP insisted that no Intelligence was an Intelligence failure and sought to know why the security apparatus at the site was not strengthened, despite an earlier incident that took place in May. "We need to strengthen our investigation process and Intelligence. No Intelligence is an Intelligence failure," said Arun Jaitley, Leader of Opposition, in Rajya Sabha.

BJP President Nitin Gadkari

The BJP also blamed the government for not taking any action after the last blast at Delhi High Court four months ago. After visiting the spot and Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj said, "It is shocking that this is the second blast in the last four months at the same area. The CCTV cameras were to be installed but the government did not take any action."

Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit visit victims. Pics/Rajeev Tyagi

Echoing his party mates, BJP President Nitin Gadkari advised Home Minister P Chidambaram to concentrate on fighting terrorism rather than attacking his political opponents. Gadkari demanded a high-level probe into the incident and a probe into the failure of the Intelligence agencies.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday night said there are some leads to the terror attack outside Delhi High Court but "it is too early to say which group is behind the incident."

"We have some leads but it is too early to say which group is behind it", Dr. Singh told media persons accompanying him on his return from Dhaka to New Delhi.

Quote unquote
Dr Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister
I talked about cooperation with all political parties. Instead of wasting time on mutual bickering and mutual recrimination, I would ask all political parties, all shades of intelligent public opinion in the country to pool their knowledge wisdom and experience on how we can tackle this (menace of terrorism).

Nitin Gadkari, President, BJP
A high-level probe in to this act of terrorism to bring the culprits to book at the earliest should be launched. The probe should also look into the failure of the Intelligence agencies.
Home Minister P Chidambram should stop training his guns against political opponents and concentrate his energy on tackling the menace of terrorism.

D Raja, CPI leader
The government should answer. No person involved in such attacks should go scot-free. I think there is a failure on the part of the government, particularly the Home Ministry.

Sheila Dikshit, Chief Minister,
This kind of cowardly act must be harshly condemned by one and all.

Condemnation across party lines
Expressing grief over the incident, the Lok Sabha condemned the blast on Wednesday afternoon. Cutting across party lines, Lok Sabha members asked the government to take all necessary measures to track down and bring the culprits to book. "We hope the government will use all agencies and means to bring the culprits to book. This is significant that the attack happened near the Parliament. We are saddened that the Capital has been attacked again," said L K Advani. Earlier, P Chidambaram informed the House about the blast. Basudeb Acharia (CPI-M) termed the blasts a "disturbing act". "Terrorists have no religion. They are out to divide and de-stabilise the nation. There is a need for united action against them," said Acharia. Mulayam Singh Yadav (SP) said, "Whenever there is a terror act, a particular community is looked at with suspicion. This is not good. It should stop. It is dangerous. It has happened several times and still continues."u00a0 Earlier, when the House met for the day, Speaker Meira Kumar condemned the blasts as a dastardly act and asked the government to make a statement before adjourning the House till 12:30 pm. Chidambaram informed the Lok Sabha that intelligence about threats was shared with Delhi Police in July but contended that it would not be possible at this stage to identify the group that executed the blast. "We must not show any vacillation. We should not be intimidated by terrorist groups. We are determined to track down the perpetrators of this horrific crime and bring them to justice. On behalf of the government, I offer my sincere condolences to the families of those who lost their lives. I offer my sympathies to those who have been injured," he said.

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