New Delhi/Patna: Nitish Kumar government on Sunday came under Opposition attack over the Bodh Gaya serial blasts for its alleged failure to act on warnings by intelligence agencies about terror designs targeting Mahabodhi temple. The BJP, with which the JD(U) parted ways in Bihar just last month, targeted the Chief Minister saying he was busy receiving Congress Ministers in the state and has no time to save the people while RJD leader Lalu Prasad sought a probe into whether intelligence inputs were ignored.
“Let Nitish Kumar state if he has not received an IB report on this,” Prasad said. “It is a serious issue that 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),” BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said here.
“The central intelligence agencies had conveyed that in view of whatever was happening in Myanmar, terrorists would attempt something in Bodhgaya temple. Despite that no steps were taken to improve security,” he said. LJP supremo Ramvilas Paswan said the blasts reflect the failure of the state government to act in time to avert the strike.
“The blasts took place even after alerts were given by the Government of India. The responsibility lies with the Chief Minister and the state and this has damaged Bihar’s image internationally,” he said.
The Bihar Chief Minister, however, dismissed suggestions that there was any security lapse and said adequate precautionary measures were taken to beef up security at the Mahabodhi temple and surrounding areas in the wake of intelligence inputs. The BJP also hit out at the central government saying it must also take responsibility to avoid such attacks. “The issue of security crisis in this country is becoming serious by the day…. The government does not have any comprehensive action plan to meet the challenge of internal and external security crisis,” BJP chief Rajnath Singh said. Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi tweeted that the “cowardly attack on Mahabodhi Temple is a matter of great sadness for the people of India & the Buddhist community around the world”. “BJP condemns the terror attacks in Bodhgaya.
Congress condemned the blasts but refrained from attacking the Bihar Chief Minister. “We condemn this horrific incident in Bodh Gaya. I urge the state government and other agencies to bring the guilty to justice as soon as possible,” Congress General Secretary and communication department in-charge Ajay Maken said. Congress leader Digvijay Singh chose to hit out at BJP accusing it of attempting to communalise politics in the run up to the Lok Sabha elections while asking non-BJP ruled states, including Bihar led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, to be careful.
BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain claimed Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was “overloaded” with work as he was handling 18 ministries. Party General Secretary and MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy said, “Law and order in Bihar is now back to the days of Lalu Prasad when the RJD was in power.” (PTI)