Political dialogue over Tuesday’s terror attack in Varanasi has once again degenerated into an unseemly war of words — rather predictably — between the Centre and the state government.
While home minister P Chidambaram has said the Centre had warned the UP government about the attack much in advance, UP chief minister Mayawati has asked the Centre to “stop playing politics over dead bodies”.
Soon after visiting the bloody spot late on Tuesday, Mayawati was all mortar and fire, spitting venom against the Centre. “The Centre had adopted a step-motherly approach towards UP. It has not given even a fraction of the support that it gave to Maharashtra after the 26/11 attack,” the feisty Dalit leader told reporters in Varanasi.
Chidambaram was quick on the draw when he landed up in Varanasi to inspect the blast site on Wednesday. “We had sent a specific advice to the state government about a possible terror attack on the Dashashwamedh Ghat as early as on February 25,” he said.
“There was already an alert in view of the 26/11 and Ayodhya demolition anniversaries… it is the state government’s job to act on the intelligence provided by the Centre,” continued Chidambaram, virtually blaming the Maya regime for being lax and negligent.
On Wednesday, UP cabinet secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh repeated Mayawati’s charge against the Centre, saying: “The state government did not get any actionable specific intelligence input from the Centre. All we got was generalised information about a possible attack in Varanasi, that too way back in February this year.”
“The government of India should provide 125 companies of Central security forces, besides other resources, to protect important religious and tourist places of the state,” Mayawati said in a statement issued to the media here on Wednesday.
“Issues related with development and national security should not be viewed through a political angle,” she said.
