We were not prepared for Mumbai attack: Pawar

Nationalist Congress Party chief and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has accepted that security establishments in the country were totally unprepared to handle an attack like the one in Mumbai. He said that except the Indian Army and the National Security Guards, no one else is prepared to handle such a concerted attack. Pawar said, "It is true that even Mumbai Police got some sophisticated equipment but not (in) that number. Here those who came - they came with number one rigorous training for number of months, number two commitment, number three excellent equipment"

"(We were) absolutely unprepared and even today we are not well prepared to fight this kind of terror except for Indian Army and NSG. Any state government's police force is not very well equipped, and they are not prepared. They are capable, but they have to be trained and equipped."

On being asked that why has India failed to learned any lessons from past terror attacks, by not strengthening coastal security for instance - a loophole that was used by terrorists to bring in explosives, in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts also, he sought to make an important distinction between the 2008 Mumbai terror attack and those in 1993.

He said, "In 1993 those who were responsible - they were from Mumbai, they were local people, they were from around Mumbai, they were Indians. But here (in 2008) that is not the case...here these 10 Johnnies who were involved were all from Pakistan."

He also accepted that the attacks are likely to dent the credibility of the government.

Rajdeep Sardesai: Do you accept that the Mumbai attacks have severely affected the credibility of the Congress-NCP government there?

Sharad Pawar: It's not question of Congress-NCP, it has definitely affected the government, whether it is Congress-NCP government or any government, but it has (also) affected the country's prestige. This particular attack, I am not ready to accept that it was just on Taj, or on Nariman building or on Oberoi. It was an attack on India's security system.

He said that Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister RR Patil had offered to resign on his own three days back, and it was he who asked Patil to continue till the operation to defeat the terrorists was over.

Rajdeep Sardesai: But is the resignation too little, too late?

Sharad Pawar: RR Patil has resigned because he himself felt that he should take the moral responsibility, but to be frank that is not the answer to this. It is good that he has taken the moral responsibility and sent a signal to the public - yes I am ready to accept the responsibility and ready to step down, but we have to go and detail, how are we going to improve the system.

He also defended Patil's comment in which he had called the incident a small one. He said, "That is not correct, that was his language problem. He has not said this, he was very perturbed, and in fact he was ready to resign three days back only. In fact it was I who told him that unless and until the entire option is completed don't run away from the thing."

Pawar refused to blame the attacks on intelligence failure, citing lack of authentic information on the issue. "I will not come to any conclusion till I get authentic information because I will not act like this where any agency - or those who are devoting day and night for sake of country and security they get demoralised."

Pawar said that the anger in the public against the political class was understandable and legitimate. He said that it is up to the politicians to accept this and to take corrective action. He added that a number of politicians had also lost their lives in spite of security being there.

"There is a serious setback, we have sacrificed a number of our colleagues, our people, and therefore anger has to be there - it is the right of the people to express their anger also. In democracy it is the responsibility of people like us to learn lessons, take corrective action and create situation where people will ultimately feel yes, corrective action has been taken."

Pawar added, "In spite of security Mrs. Gandhi was assassinated, many colleagues in Punjab - irrespective of security they have been assassinated, I can give number of examples, but I am accepting the reaction of the public is legitimate.

“You see because of this electronic media - again and again repeating same thing, it does create some effect on the mind of anybody. And there if they have reacted, if there is anger I think people like me - though I am not directly looking after law and order responsibility of that state - but I think it is our responsibility to take corrective action and create situation that this type of thing will not return again," the Union Agriculture Minister said.

Taking a jibe at the BJP, he said that in spite of the BJP saying that the Mumbai Terror Attacks won't be politicised, they are doing just that. He also accepted that Terrorism might become an electoral issue in the next General Elections.

He said, "It might become election issue. XYZ party might take political advantage of this; they are saying that we are not bringing politics into this but if they bring politics - alright. Even if somebody gets benefit we should not worry about that, and we should not forget to take corrective action."

In the end he said that his message to the Mumbaikar was to fight back.

"My message to the Mumbaikar - this is a situation where we should not be desperate, we should not be demoralized, we have to fight these type of plans, and we will fight, and I am confident - Mumbai Police, Maharashtra Police - government has to take number of corrective steps and Govt will definitely take corrective actions. We'll provide sufficient steps to provide security to people of Maharashtra," Pawar said.

(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest)