Supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have been saying that it is not fair to blame the PM or his government for any mishandling of the attack on the Pathankot Air Force Base in Punjab this week. There were several agencies at work. Bureaucrats are all wicked. Terrorists are “enemies of humanity” and so on.

This fine argument would stand if supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Narendra Modi had used it for all such attacks or incidents, especially when the BJP was not in power. If the Indian security system is overrun by competing agencies and wicked bureaucrats, then it holds true whoever is in power, including former governments.