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| BJP, Cong slugfest over terror attack begins |
| BS Reporter / Mumbai/New Delhi Nov 29, 2008, 00:37 IST |
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Gone was the sobriety, the resolve not to politicise the Mumbai assault. Even before the security forces could finish their operations against the terrorists, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had started a political war of words over the attack.
It was BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Lal Krishna Advani, who, after his visit to Mumbai on Thursday, was the opener for this political match when he said, “It now appears that a mobile phone with a terrorist is of Pakistani origin. This reinforces the fact that intelligence agencies’ energy is being diverted to nail the so-called Hindu terror, which evidently enabled the Mumbai attackers’ plot to go undetected.”
In his statement, Advani also slammed the UPA for its non-serious approach towards terror. “The government’s non-serious approach is reinforced by reports that the Mumbai attackers arrived in the city by the sea route.”
Union Science Minister Kapil Sibal soon retaliated terming Advani’s action as “irresponsible.” “No leader has stooped to such low level before when the security forces are still in action,” he said. The Congress also heavily criticised Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for trying to score brownie points by visiting Mumbai. “The state government requested Modi not to visit the action areas now.
But not only he went there, also he started accusing the Central government, this lacks maturity and national commitment,” said Sibal.
Narendra Modi, didn’t just go to the Trident Hotel on Friday but also visited the homes of slain Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare and Senior Police Inspector Vijay Salaskar and announced reward of Rs 1 crore for all the policemen who laid down their lives in the line of duty. He said: “two months back at the meeting of the National Security Council (NSC), I had specifically raised the issue of boats of Indian fishermen who are fishing near Pakistani waters, being ceased by the Pakistani authorities and arrest of Indian fishermen and expressed apprehension that, these boats might be misused for terrorist attacks on India. I had also asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take up the issue with the Pakistani government and at the international level, however, my demand was ignored.
“Desire for office must not override supreme national interest,” quipped Sibal.
Interestingly, Minister of State for Home, Sriprakash Jaiswal, admitted to intelligence failures. While speaking to media in Mumbai, he said: “ there have been lapses on part of the security agencies which lead to this kind of attack and we quickly need to ascertain causes behind these lapses and take measures to ensure they don’t happen in future.”
Jaiswal said it was ironic that the BJP and one of its chief minister had to visit the home of ATS chief to whom they had been targeting over the last few days and this party and its leadership including Leader of Opposition L K Advani were people who “use dead to do politics”.
Hinting that there could be more than meets the eye Karkare’s death, Jaiswal said, Karkare was a target for last few days and this should be one of the angle of the investigations.
Meanwhile reacting to Modi’s statement that he was not allowed to go to site of attack chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said, “even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh accepted our advise about not visiting the sites of attack it would have not only endangered their security but jeopardized the operation against terrorist and he accepted our advice. But it is unfortunate some people try to earn brownie points over issues of national importance. It is not Maharashtra’s culture to say no to guest and we did not made any attempts to prevent Modi’s visit to Mumbai,” he said.
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