So, why did Bihar regime ignore Centre’s alertIJ
With Union Minister for Home Affairs Sushil Kumar Shinde categorically saying that his Ministry had alerted the Bihar Government on a possible terrorist attack during Mr Narendra Modi's Sunday rally in Patna, the bottom falls from State Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's claim that his regime had received no warning and that there had been no security lapse. The Chief Minister has been on an overdrive since the serial blasts that snuffed out half a dozen lives, to deflect attention from his Government's failure on the security front.
After Mr Shinde's statement, Mr Nitish Kumar has some explaining to do. It is clear from what has been emerging since the tragic incident that security measures were absolutely lax at and around Gandhi Maidan in Patna where Mr Modi addressed a massive gathering. let alone have a high level of security preparedness, even basic measures at the ground and its vicinity had not been implemented. It almost appears that the State Government took the event callously, because it must have thought that it would be seen in ‘poor light' had it to give Mr Modi's rally much attention. Clearly, politics trumped over the safety of innocent citizens, not to speak of the security of senior leaders of the BJP who had gathered for the rally.
Mr Nitish Kumar must tell the country what steps his Government took on the Home Ministry's alert. This he may find difficult to do, because he did pretty little. The best he can do is to remain in the denial mode. He may well continue in that state or at the most take refuge by saying that the alert was ‘general and not specific' in nature. Even assuming for argument's sake that the Home Ministry alert was general, wasn't that good enough for the State administration to put in place a comprehensive security mechanism, given that several lakhs of people had gathered at the venue, and even the smallest incident could have resulted in a tragedy of massive proportionIJ
little can be expected of a Chief Minister who has such a visceral dislike for Mr Modi that he is willing to put national interest at stake in a bid to appease the minorities. People have not forgotten that his Government had refused to take the custody of wanted terrorist Yasin Bhatkal after the latter had been arrested a few weeks ago in the State. This, despite the fact that Bhatkal was connected with various modules of the Indian Mujahideen operating in Bihar. The Chief Minister later offered lame excuses for the shocking inaction even as the National Investigation Agency took the alleged terrorist in its charge. Mr Nitish Kumar has also been ominously silent on the flourishing activities of the IM in Bihar, despite material emerging that the outfit was responsible for the Bodh Gaya blasts too.
He believes, erroneously, that the minority voters will be upset if his Government took a proactive stand on the terror outfit. That is the principal reason why he downplayed the role of the Islamist terror group and his people shamelessly sought to point fingers at the BJP for the tragedy. The Chief Minister must understand that the minority community is as disgusted as any citizen of the country by the activities of these terror organisations. The community is looking for firm action against and not protection to anti-national elements.