Too little, too late, says BJP

NEW DELHI: Dubbing the resignation of Home Minister Shivraj Patil as "too little too late", the BJP, which had been gunning for him over a spate of terror attacks in the country, today said that the whole government had "failed" and should quit.

"It is too little and too late, the resignation of one minister can't be enough. The present circumstances is due to the failure of the whole government," BJP chief Rajnath Singh, who is in Rajasthan, said.

This seems "another unsuccessful tactic" of the government to cool down public sentiments against the government, Singh said reacting to Patil's resignation from cabinet.

The BJP also termed the whole Mumbai incident as a "collective culpable negligence" and demanded that the government should resign.

"It is a collective culpable negligence of the government. The responsibility should also be collective and no government has the right to survive after this," party spokesperson Rajeev Prataap Rudy told the media.

The resignation also vindicates the BJP charges that the UPA government has been dysfunctional, he claimed. BJP senior leader and party MP Ravishankar Prasad said, "It is a belated attempt to shield the heat against the UPA government."

It is evident in the light of the preparation by the terrorists preceding the attacks that the government was "callously negligent", he added.

Patil, who had offered to step down in the wake of the Mumbai terror strikes at the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting last night, sent his resignation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh this morning.