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Journalism of Courage
Varanasi,that ancient,spirituality-sodden city by the Ganga,was suddenly and cruelly attacked during evening prayers. A bomb placed in a milk container ripped through the Sitala Ghat temple,injuring over 30 people and killing a one-year-old girl. The tragedy has reverberated through the nation,which had begun to breathe easy in the 10 months following the Pune bakery attack.But even as we were taking in the news,there was already a political chorus that had swiftly processed the event and assimilated it into its own worldviews,pinning blame according to its own ends. So the BJP decided that the attack stemmed from the governments soft-on-terror policy that emboldened terrorists. Tentatively,it appears to be a security lapse and lack of proper intelligence, said BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad. Equally quick off the mark,his colleague,Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi,sought to indict Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram,saying he maintained
a casual approach to terrorism. Meanwhile,at the state level in UP,the Congresss Rita Bahuguna Joshi and the Samajwadi Partys Mulayam Singh Yadav have leapt on the opportunity to trash Chief Minister Mayawatis administration and its inadequate security response. The home minister has pointed out that the Centre had alerted the UP government to a possible attack near Dashashwamedh Ghat,which the state has fiercely batted back at him,saying there was absolutely no actionable information and that the CM advised the Central government not to wash its hands of internal security by taking cover behind the state subject excuse.
