Political slugfest begins after Bodh Gaya blasts

As the serial blasts in Bodh Gaya on Sunday prompted the BJP to slam the UPA government for not having an action plan in place to deal with security crises, the Congress, which leads the ruling alliance, accused the opposition party of trying to communalise politics ahead of the parliamentary polls in 2014.

“The BJP and the Sangh Parivar want to communalise politics in India again in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections,” said Congress leader Digvijay Singh.

He was reacting to BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad’s comment about the possible role of terrorists, who had earlier carried out a blast at German Bakery in Pune, in the terror attacks at the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya. “For God’s sake, please let the investigation be completed and please do not communalise each act of terrorism,” said Singh.

“The states not ruled by the BJP must be careful and, (Bihar Chief Minister) Nitish Kumar should be more careful,” the general secretary of the All India Congress Committee told reporters in New Delhi.

Nitish Kumar had last month led his party, the Janata Dal-United, out of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. 

BJP president Rajnath Singh said that the Congress-led UPA Government had no plan in place to deal with external or internal security threats.

“The issue of security crisis in this country is becoming more serious by the day. The Government does not have any comprehensive action plan to meet the challenge of internal and external security crises,” he said, adding, “There are bomb blasts taking place every day. Innocent people are losing their lives.”

The BJP also targeted Nitish Kumar, stating that the Chief Minister of Bihar had these days been busy playing host to Union ministers and leaders of the Congress in Patna, and had little time to maintain law and order in the state.

“It is a serious issue that the central agencies had warned about this attack and given specific inputs that Bodh Gaya would be attacked, and still no proper arrangements were made (by the state government),” said BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar.

“The central intelligence agencies had conveyed that in view of whatever was happening in Myanmar, terrorists would attempt something at the Bodh Gaya temple. Despite that, no steps were taken to improve security,” he alleged.

Javadekar was referring to intelligence inputs purportedly received by central agencies about the possibility of terrorists targeting the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya in reaction to the 2012 riots in the Rakhine state in Myanmar.