Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil came under pressure on Monday after a key United Progressive Alliance constituent and Cabinet colleague Lalu Yadav attacked the handling of terrorism cases and demanded an urgent meeting of the Cabinet and all political parties to discuss the issue.
Rashtriya Janata Dal chief and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad, who met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Congress President Sonia Gandhi earlier in the day and discussed the situation in the wake of serial Delhi blasts on Saturday, however, did not take Patil's name directly.
"A special Cabinet meeting should be called to discuss threadbare issues arising out of the blasts in Delhi," he told reporters in New Delhi adding that the prime minister assured him that he would call a meeting in a couple of days.
He said UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi should also call an all-party meeting to debate the issue of terrorism. Prasad blamed intelligence failure for the Delhi blasts, saying inputs from the Intelligence Bureau is always "vague".
The RJD chief demanded the constitution of a special task force to deal with terrorism-related cases. Attacking intelligence agencies, Lalu said the Delhi blasts were a result of intelligence failure. "The IB inputs are always vague and should be more specific," he added. "A mechanism should be evolved to tackle such situation," he said.
"After bomb blasts we remain alert for a day or two only whereas the alertness should be a continuous process. There should not be any slackness in maintaining vigil all the time," Lalu said.
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