Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Balbir Punj on Tuesday said External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid's defence of Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde for attending a Bollywood music launch hours after serial blasts in Patna smacked of arrogance and is reflective of the Congress-led UPA Government's mindset.
"This only smacks of arrogance of this government. The Home Minister's first responsibility is to ensuring security to everybody in this country. An incident of this magnitude has taken place, half a dozen innocent lives have been lost and more than that the target of the terrorists was to create a panic and disrupt communal peace," said Punj.
"And thanks to the maturity of the BJP leadership, they handled it in an exemplary manner. And here, you have the Home Minister enjoying film music and the company of filmstars, this is really regrettable and the worse is the defence put on by Mr. Salman Khurshid," he added.
Khurshid had earlier on Monday voiced his support for Shinde, saying he had a life beyond Patna.
"What happened in Patna was obviously sad. Lives are lost because somebody is playing an awful kind of politics," he told media in New Delhi.
On Sunday morning, several low-intensity blasts ripped through Patna just before BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi addressed a massive rally. Most of those explosions were in and around Gandhi Maidan, the rally venue.
Shinde, who has charge of the country's law and order, spent nearly an hour that evening at the music launch of Bollywood film 'Rajjo' posing for photographs with the actors.
The low intensity blasts rocked Patna between 9.30 a.m. and 12.45 p.m. on Sunday shortly before Modi's address to a 'Hunkar rally' in Gandhi Maidan.