'Where is PM's promised plan to fight terror?'

Ajit Doval, former chief of the Intelligence Bureau, has raised serious doubts about the  statements of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P Chidambaram, who had claimed that they had a blue print to provide security to the people of India.

In an exclusive conversation with rediff.com on Friday, he said the serial blasts in Mumbai on Wednesday evening, which claimed 18 lives, were part of a deep rooted conspiracy hatched by terror outfits operating from across the border.

"When the United Progressive Alliance government was voted to power, Dr Singh had promised to implement within a hundred days a fool-proof plan for internal security that would ensure the safety of all citizens of this country. Two years later, the plan is yet to see the light of the day though the home minister repeatedly talks about it in press conferences," he pointed out.

He agreed with former director general of Punjab police K P S Gill, who had stated that the police network needs to be strengthened.

"I agree that unless you train the local police in intelligence, you cannot fight terror. But there is a difference in fighting terrorism in Punjab and Mumbai, as the latter has a floating population of lakhs. How do you identify those elements which have sneaked into Mumbai through Bangladesh? The police system needs to be overhauled completely with more laws to fight terror. Even in the United Kingdom, new laws have been enforced to fight terror," he said.

Reacting strongly to Chidambaram's claim that the IB didn't provide any inputs about the likelihood of such an attack, Doval said, "The home minister and the Maharashtra government have made such statements to protect the Congress government in the state."

It would serve no purpose to dig out old cases and blame them on saffron terror, feels Doval.

"Vote bank politics is not in the interest of the nation and hence politics should be separated from an investigation of terror acts," he said.