Congress seeks Amit Shah's resignation over Red Fort blast; questions 'serious security lapses'

Congress on Wednesday demanded the resignation of Union Home Minister Amit Shah over the alleged security lapses that led to the Red Fort blast, which claimed 12 lives. Accusing the security establishment of serious lapses, Congress general secretary K C Venugopal said Amit Shah should step down if he has any sense of responsibility. When the Mumbai blast happened, when the UPA was in power, the then Home Minister resigned, taking moral responsibility for security. The opposition demanded his resignation, owing to moral responsibility for the security failure, he said. Venugopal said the Union Home Minister always used to lie in Parliament, claiming that there were no riots or blasts in the country under him. Our Home Minister always says in Parliament, there are no riots, there are no blasts, lying every time. Now, in front of his eyes, very close to his office, this blast happened. The government should come out with a clear-cut enquiry and should reveal the real reason to the nation, he said. Describing the balst as a failure of the BJP-led Union Government, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge demanded that the perpetrators of the terrorist act be given exemplary punishment so that it acts as a deterrent. It was unfortunate that such an incident happened in the national capital where top agencies, that are tasked with ensuring security, including the Intelligence Bureau functioned, Kharge pointed out. The culprits must be punished severely so that others should be afraid of doing it, he said adding his party would raise the issue in the Parliament next month, during the winter session. Now they have handed over the case to the National Intelligence Agency. Let the investigation report be out. The Parliament session will begin from December 1. After that we will see, Kharge added. On Monday evening, a high-intensity blast ripped through a slow moving car near Delhis Red Fort metro station, killing 12 people and injuring several others. The blast came hours after eight people, including three doctors connected to the university, were arrested, and 2,900 kilograms of explosives were seized in what investigators described as a white-collar terror module allegedly involving Jaish-e-Mohammed and Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, spanning Kashmir, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh.