BJP accuses UPA govt of playing vote bank politics over national security

Two days after ten serial blasts rocked the Bodh Gaya temple town, BJP president Rajnath Singh and senior leader Arun Jaitley visited the Mahabodhi temple on Tuesday.

Bodhgaya: Suspecting the role of home grown sleeper modules of terror groups in Mahabodhi temple blasts, BJP on Tuesday lashed out at the UPA government for "totally failing" in tackling terror and accused it of linking the nation`s security with "vote bank politics".

BJP president Rajnath Singh, who visited Bodhgaya along with senior leaders Arun Jaitley and Ravishankar Prasad, demanded a thorough probe into the incident and urged the Centre to show "firm will" to fight the menace of terror. Both Singh and Jaitley also alluded to the Ishrat Jahan encounter case, which has led to some sort of a CBI-versus IB face off and triggered speculation that probe findings in the "fake encounter" case could reach to Narendra Modi`s door. "UPA government has linked the security of the nation to the politics of vote bank. A lack of concern by UPA government is being seen over the need for security measures. They are showing (people belonging to) organizations like LeT as martyrs and exposing the security apparatus of the country," Jaitley said. Maintaining that there should be full coordination between the intelligence and the investigating agencies in the country, the BJP President rued "today the IB and CBI are at loggerheads." "This happened because the Congress-led central government has been misusing the central agencies. There should be maximum possible coordination between agencies like the CBI and IB to fight terrorism," he said. He said the Congress-led UPA government should take action to free the country from terrorism. UPA government has totally failed in this job, he charged. "We cannot deny that this kind of incident would have been carried out by the sleeper modules, which are in India, at the behest of the international terror groups. The matter should be thoroughly probed," Singh said. Though Singh and Jaitley refrained from attacking Bihar government over the issue, they demanded that facts including whether specific intelligence inputs were given to the state or not should be brought in public domain. Noting that it is not within the capacity of any one state to fight the challenge of terrorism or Maoist menace and the central government comes in the picture here, Singh said, "May be specific intelligence was not given". He was asked whether he holds the Nitish government responsible for the incident. However, "If the input was given, both Centre and state should be have jointly ensured the security of Buddhist shrines in the country." Jaitley said whenever such an incident happens, it does reflect the failure of the establishment and hence "all facts should come in public domain. Who is responsible for it. Whether specific intelligence inputs were given or not." To a question whether Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and its vice president Rahul Gandhi should also visit the temple town after the incident, Jaitley said that it was for them to take a call. "I don`t think there is a competition in visiting but it should be a competition in action," he said. Senior BJP leader from Bihar Nand Kishore Yadav also accompanied them. The BJP president, however, refused to comment on Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh`s remarks that blasts at Bodhgaya occurred a day after Modi addressed party workers in Bihar and wondering whether there was a connect. Noting that his party does not want to engage in any politics on the issue, Singh said, "BJP wishes a comprehensive plan should be there so that we can face all kinds of terror attacks, be it biological, chemical and cyber terror attack". He said the BJP has always assured the UPA government of its support on the issues like terrorism as "there is no difference on fighting terrorism and Maoist menace". PTI