While the debate in the Lok Sabha saw Opposition members putting up a united front with the Government on Pakistan-sponsored terror, in the Rajya Sabha they took an aggressive posture, with key speakers trying to score political points over each other. However, the smaller parties stuck to the script and wanted revamp of the security set-up.

While the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, L K Advani, took the lead in the show of unity in the lower house, the Rajya Sabha saw his party colleague Arun Shourie picking holes in the Government’s response to the terror attacks and taking a stand suggesting that New Delhi should make Islamabad realise the cost of perpetrating terror against India.

The CPI(M) joined the game of political one-upmanship with its senior leader Sitaram Yechury linking the terror attacks with the Indo-US nuclear deal. He said the Government had failed to take into account the fact that aligning itself with the US would expose India to new types of security threats. The perception that India was an ally of the US will invite new threats, he said.

Adding his bit was the BSP’s Satish Chandra Mishra who took on the Centre for not aiding Uttar Pradesh in its fight against terror and indulging in scoring points.

Kickstarting the debate, Shourie criticised the manner in which the Government engaged Pakistan in the wake of the Mumbai attacks, especially the Prime Minister’s request to Pakistan to send the ISI chief to New Delhi to share the evidence of the attacks, and the way the Government kept speaking about the possibility of terrorists taking the sea route without doing anything.

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