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After leaders, bureaucrats feel the heat of Mumbai attacks
Published on Tue, Dec 02, 2008 at 02:13, Updated on Tue, Dec 02, 2008 at 02:26 in Nation section
Tags: Mumbai Terror Attacks, Home Secretary , New Delhi
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New Delhi: There have been a spate of politicians resigning in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks. But till now the bureaucrats have not been held accountable.
However, sources have told CNN-IBN that Union Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta could well be the first bureaucrat to pay a price for the Mumbai attacks.
But what about the troika of National Security Advisor MK Narayanan, a former super cop himself, Intelligence Bureau chief PC Haldar and RAW chief Ashok Chaturvedi, who are responsible for maintaining security of the country?
The politicians including Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deskhmukh, Maharashtra Home Minister RR Patil and Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil have owned responsibility for the daring Mumbai terror attack.
Some of them quit willingly while others pushed into submission.
Now questions are now being posed against other top bureaucrats too
The federal structure of our polity demands that there be a close coordination between our politicians and the bureaucrats. There is a process of political accountability, but what about bureaucratic accountability?
"For bureaucrats to function properly there must be a clear political leadership," says former NSA Brijesh Mishra.
CNN-IBN has learnt that there were clear intelligence inputs that were provided to the authorities.
Yet, on the day of the operation, an Indian Air Force helicopter had to be pressed into service at the last moment to paradrop NSG commandos. So who is responsible?
The NSG Director General Jyoti Krishan K Dutt was provided a car that was not bullet proof and was being driven by a civilian and that too at a time when top Mumbai Police officers were gunned down by terrorists.
Is this not callousness?
And worse, after a marathon 60-hour operation, when the country was hailing the recapture of Taj Hotel, the NSG commandos were taken back in a BEST bus.
It was a stark comparison to the open bus reception provided to a victorious Indian cricket team on its return after winning the Twenty20 World Cup.
"The time has come for bureaucrats to move on from just looking at files and do something drastic," says Chief Election Commissioner TS Krishnamoorthy.
Indian bureaucrats have long been accused of being tied up in red tape, but terror has exposed their complete paralysis in an hour of crisis.
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