By IANS,
New Delhi : With eight major unsolved terror attacks since the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) took over as its ammunition, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is all set to corner the government for its lapses and its inability to nab the culprits.
The serial blasts in Jaipur Tuesday that left 63 killed and more than 200 injured has given the main opposition party fresh opportunity to score points on the UPA government’s failure in handling internal security.
“There is a complete failure of central intelligence and UPA policies in tackling terrorism. The UPA government failed to treat terrorism as a national menace,” BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar told IANS.
The politics over terrorism has already begun.
The BJP, which had opposed the UPA government’s decision to repeal the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), has revived its demand for a stringent legislation to counter terrorism.
BJP’s prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani Tuesday said the Jaipur blasts reinforce the need to bring back an anti-terror law like POTA which the NDA regime had enacted.
Indirectly blaming the central government – Rajasthan is ruled by the BJP, Advani said: “It’s not about an anti-terror law alone. It reflects the attitude of the government and the people… It is about the ability of the state to pre-empt such strikes.”
Javadekar argued that there was a marked difference in the way the UPA and the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regimes handled issues of terrorism.
“Of course, there were terror attacks during the NDA rule also. But whether it was an attack on parliament or on Akshardham temple in Ahmedabad, the security forces killed the terrorists on the spot and the cases were resolved,” said Javadekar.
The BJP leader alleged that the UPA had not been able to solve a “single terror case”.
Since Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government took over in May 2004, there have been eight major blasts – Delhi (October 2005), Guwahati (June 2006), Mumbai (July 2006), Varanasi (March 2007), Hyderabad (May and August 2007), Ajmer (October 2007), and Uttar Pradesh (November 2007). None of these cases have been solved.
Sources in the opposition said internal security and the UPA government’s failure would be a major campaign issue in Karnataka, where the assembly polls are on, as well as in the 2009 parliamentary elections.
Javadekar, however, added: “We will not use the bomb blasts as a political tool. But the people will. Security, anyway, is a major election issue.”
The UPA government is already under fire from all quarters for rising food prices.