Worried by the growing perception of heightened terror attacks in the country and the Opposition determination to translate it into its main campaign theme in coming assembly and Lok Sabha elections, the UPA leadership is making full efforts to send a tough message in this regard.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday said at a political rally in Dadri that the government is ??capable of dealing with any kind of terrorism??, while adding that there should not be ??narrow politics?? over such a sensitive issue. ??We are very alert to threats to internal security,?? she said. Ms Gandhi?s response, party leaders admitted, reflected the anxiety over opposition attack over government’s handling of internal security situation in the wake of serial bomb blasts in Delhi, Bangalore and Ahmedabad in the last two months. The police did achieve a measure of success in identifying the group behind the blasts but the impression of toughness has diluted in the wake of fresh blasts in Maharashtra and Gujarat.
Senior UPA leaders on Tuesday conceded that the tackling of terror issue did have the potential of damaging the ruling coalition’s electoral prospects and dissipate the gains from the successes over the Indo-US nuclear agreement as well as other government?s achievements like the NREGA and RTI act. The UPA?s failure to project itself of being tough, which in turn buttressed the opposition BJP charge that the ruling coalition was soft on terror, had also come to be criticised sharply by allies of the UPA. Union home minister Shivraj Patil, in particular, was targeted by allies in this regard.