War of words over Delhi High Court blast

Soon after BJP leaders Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley addressed a press conference to criticise the government, Home Minister P Chidam­baram and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal hit back saying that it was “not in the DNA of BJP” to be bipartisan.

"It is deeply unfortunate that BJP should have so quickly given up the whatever pretence of bipartisanship was shown two days ago...It is not in the DNA of BJP to maintain bipartisanship," Chidambaram told a press conference along with Bansal.

He slammed Swaraj and Jaitley for addressing press on Delhi High Court bomb blast, saying he did not recall Leaders of Opposition after Parliament attack (in December 2001 when NDA was in power) holding a press conference.

Reacting to Jaitley’s allegation that after Chidambaram taking the charge of Home Ministry, seven major blasts took place in the country and none of them were solved, the Home Minister said that “many blasts investigation were being done by the states and not by the Centre”.

“The Bangalore Chinnaswamy Stadium blast is being investigated by BJP-ruled Karnataka while the Varanasi blasts probe is the responsibility of BSP-led Uttar Pradesh government. Both the cases are still unresolved”, he said.

On charges of Union Ministers were being heckled by relative of the victims of the blast at the high court, the Minister said it was incorrect to describe his experience as heckling.

“Victims relatives have expressed their anguished and asked the Government to provide proper relief. We have heard them patiently”, he said.

Earlier, addressing media Jaitely lashed out at the government for not having any “actionable intelligence” and failing to resolve past seven terror bomb blast cases after Chidambaram took charge of the Ministry of Home Affairs. Jaitley said it was clear that intelligence agencies were not able to break into the terror groups, with the latter outsmarting them by change of tactics.  The BJP leader said it is a matter of serious concern.

He said the credibility of the UPA-2 has taken a “severe beating” and reflected in the handing of  Anna Hazare fast as also “the hostile reception” meted out to the UPA and Congress leaders during their visit to the RLM hospital and the blast site on Wednesday.