Home panel puts onus of Mumbai riots on IB, police

Deploring the incidents, Union Home Minister Indrajit Gupta shared the views of the MPs and promised to report back to them after his tour of Mumbai later in the day. As the State government has ordered a judicial enquiry into the entire turn of events, Gupta refrained from commenting on the role of the police or the intelligence agencies.

According to MPs who attended the meeting, the views expressed by the committee members was that the gravity of the Mumbai incident made it imperative that there could be no delays in remedial measures to prevent such incidents in future.

Though the discussion on police reforms was not taken up, it was decided to take it up separately without delay, said Imchalemba, Congress MP from Nagaland.

Some members brought up the issue of imposing President’s Rule in the Maharashtra citing the failure of the law and order machinery, but this was opposed by the BJP members present.

The move to impose central rules was also opposed by MPs from other parties. “One particular incident cannot determine a situation to invite the imposition of President’s Rule”, said Pramothes Mukherjee, RSP MP.

The possible role of “foreign mercenaries” in creating unstability by provoking such incidents was also raised by some members. Legislators agreed that the entire sequence of incidents had to be investigated thoroughly.

The BJP and Shiv Sena members present were vehement that the culprits be found and punished. Gupta brought up the issue of cases against policemen involved in fighting terrorism in Punjab and wanted members’ advice on how to tackle what has become a complicated problem for the government.

Though the particular problems of the Punjab police were not discussed, the Home Minister said he wanted members to come up with some concrete suggestions on the issue when they next met.