TNN

Bangalore, Dec 2: The all-party meet convened by chief minister B S Yeddyurappa on Monday to chalk out a strategy to tackle terror, turned into one more occasion for the politicians to take swipes at each other and score brownie points.

The meet was attended by MP Ananth Kumar, BJP state unit chief D V Sadanand Gowda, Congress leaders R V Deshpande, Mallikarjun Kharge, D K Shiva Kumar and V S Ugrappa, JD(S) leaders H D Kumaraswamy and M C Nanaiah, and CPM state general secretary V G K Nair, among others.

The Congress utilized the opportunity to hit out at the ruling BJP government for the mass transfers, especially in the police department. "The entire police department is demoralized due to the large-scale transfers. They have lost moral courage,'' fumed KPCC president R V Deshpande.

Others also spoke on similar lines, and the suggestions were many: have a strong Anti-Terrorist Cell with separate recruitment, special training and an exclusive intelligence wing, bring in strong laws, strengthen the intelligence wing, enhance salaries for police personnel, allocate more money for police department and modernize the force, create public awareness on terrorism, issue ID cards at the police station level and enumerate newcomers in that jurisdiction.

Before offering suggestions, the participants did not forget to harp on the shortcomings in the department -- shortage of staff, lack of modern equipment and trained personnel, ineffective intelligence apparatus... nothing the citizen doesn't know.

Then, sensing public outrage and the sensitivity of the issue, they took a `politically correct' stand and agreed to cooperate with the government in the fight against terror.

As on earlier occasions, the CM announced he would take an all-party delegation to the Centre to ask for more resources, including a National Security Guards (NSG) unit for Bangalore.