Major Left parties and the Bharatiya Janata Party strongly condemned Wednesday's blast at the reception area of the Delhi High Court and faulted the government for not acting on the warning in May when a mild explosion took place on the premises.
These parties also pointed the finger at lack of intelligence.
Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley was of the view “no intelligence is also intelligence failure.”
His counterpart in the Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj, felt that after the May blast, the government could have installed surveillance equipment such as CCTV cameras.
“This attack has come after the Mumbai serial blasts in July. The perpetrators of those attacks have not yet been identified or apprehended. This failure of the government and the intelligence-security agencies is a matter of concern,” a CPI(M) Polit Bureau statement said.
It expressed sympathy with the families of those killed and to those injured in the incident, which was part of a “nefarious design” to disrupt peace and harmony. It was “imperative” the government took urgent steps to identify and catch the culprits.
The CPI echoed similar sentiments, saying it was unfortunate that the nation's mega cities, Mumbai and Delhi, continued to be targets of terrorists.
BJP president Nitin Gadkari appealed to people of Delhi not to panic. They should help maintain peace and harmony. While demanding a high-level probe, he said the “tall claims of the Delhi Police and intelligence agencies about the safety of the National Capital” stood exposed.
Mr. Jaitley regretted lack of follow-up action by the government after May. Investigations into several terror incidents around the country have not yet yielded results. Besides Wednesday's blast here, there were the serial blasts in Mumbai a few months ago, explosions at Sheetla ghat in Varanasi, the Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore, and the German Bakery in Pune. The May incident around the Delhi High Court was possibly “a dry run,” he said.
