Opposition attacks government for security failure

Opposition parties attacked the government over Wednesday's Delhi High Court blast and asked how it failed to be vigilant despite a bomb attack at the same court four months ago.

While opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Nitin Gadkari attacked Home Minister P. Chidambaram, saying he should concentrate on security than politics, Left parties joined blamed the government for the security lapse that led to the blast.

'Shri (Nitin) Gadkari has urged the union Home Minister Shri P. Chidambaram to stop training his guns against political opponents and concentrate his energies in tackling the menace of terrorism,' an official statement from the BJP party office said.

Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj blamed the government for not being vigilant despite a blast taking place outside the high court four months back.

'Four months back a low intensity blast occurred; if the government had been vigilant, this tragedy could have been averted,' Sushma Swaraj said and criticised the authorities for not having placed CCTVs at the court.

'If in four months, even this much security cannot be updated it means the government is responsible somewhere. If they are so lazy that they cannot put CCTV cameras in four months, then how can we say the government is vigilant,' she said.

BJP general secretary Ravi Shankar Prasad said 'Terrorists come and attack at the busiest gate of the high court, and Delhi Police and government have no information. It is regrettable.'

The Left parties were in agreement and said it was a failure of the home ministry and Delhi Police.

'I find this a failure of the home ministry,' Communist Party of India (CPI) leader D. Raja said.

'We need to probe how such a thing could happen again and again. The government should probe whether it was a failure of intelligence or failure of policy,' he said.

CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta called it a failure of Delhi Police. 'Delhi Police is responsible for being negligent.'

The powerful blast, which took place around 10.30 a.m. the peak rush hour, injured at least 76 people, some of them critically.

The bomb went off around 10.15 a.m. just outside Gate No 5 of the complex near India Gate in central Delhi where passes are issued for