Parties aim their own missiles

Even as the police drew no conclusions on the motive behind Wednesday’s blast near the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) headquarters here, political parties were quick to draw inferences in line with their electoral aspirations. Incidentally, April 17 also marked the close of nominations for the May 5 Karnataka Assembly elections.

The ruling BJP claimed that the blast was “targeted” at it in the run-up to the elections, immediately issuing a communiqué that the mid-morning timing of the blast was intended to harm its top leaders. Interestingly, none of its bigwigs were present at the time, as most were busy either filing their own nominations or accompanying other candidates filing theirs.

Already cordoned off

A senior BJP leader told

The Hindu the area around the party office had been cordoned off because of frequent visits by top leaders with Z category security. “This may have prevented the [perpetrators] from planting the bomb in the party office premises,” he said.

BJP National General Secretary Ananth Kumar said the Union government should arrange for a National Security Guard (NSG) hub in Bangalore. “After the Mumbai terror attack [in 2008], the Prime Minister [Manmohan Singh] had promised Bangalore an NSG hub,” he added.

On the other hand, Congress leader Siddaramaiah described the bomb blast as “an intelligence failure” on the part of the State government.

In Bangalore, Congress MP H. Vishwanath said that he “smelled the hand of the Sangh Parivar” and urged the National Investigative Agency to give its report before May 5.

‘Insensitivity’

Launching a counter attack, Law Minister S. Suresh Kumar accused the Congress of trying to politicise a sensitive issue. “People can see through the statements of Congress leaders and their insensitivity to human sufferings,” he said, and predicted that such callousness would affect its poll fortunes.

Janata Dal (Secular) accused both BJP and Congress of taking “political advantage” of the blast and its State President H.D. Kumaraswamy demanded a thorough investigation.

He also cautioned political parties against politicising the issue.