The proceedings began with an introductory speech by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in which he called for a federal agency to fight terror and four nodal points in the country to station NSG forces. This was followed with presentations by the new Home Minister P Chidambaram and Mukherjee who said that he was in constant touch with his Pak counterpart.

The Opposition, however, would have none of it, with leaders like RLD’s Ajit Singh advocating a “tit-for-tat” policy while CPI general secretary A B Bardhan said that not only the National Security Advisor, all officials responsible for internal security should also be made to own up and shown the door.

BJP’s Jaswant Singh and V K Malhotra reiterated the need for a law stronger than POTA and said that the government’s call for “a consensus” on anti-terror measures meant nothing “when it was not serious.” Trinamool Congress’s Dinesh Trivedi said that the “entire system was rotten” while Mulayam Singh Yadav added “questions were being asked about the political class in the country.”

LJP’s Ram Vilas Paswan said difference should be made between “Pakistani terrorists” and “Pak-sponsored terrorists.” SP’s Amar Singh said that Vilasrao Deshmukh’s seriousness in tackling terror was evident when he chose to visit the terror-ravaged Taj along with film director Ram Gopal Verma and actor-son Reitesh Deshmukh. The director has said that his presence was a “mere coincidence.”

The meeting saw heated exchanges when Lalu Prasad, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan accused the BJP of “maligning the Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad” and its chief Hemant Karkare who fell to a terrorist’s bullet. To which Malhotra said that the “ATS was too pre-occupied with the so-called Hindu terror” a reason why “cross-border conspirators had managed to launch an audacious anti-India operation”.

... contd.