As the political fallout of the Mumbai terror attacks began, the Home Minister Shivraj Patil had to go. He seems to have exhausted all the nine lives of the proverbial cat.

An agitated Congress president Sonia Gandhi declared: “One thing we do know…we can no longer sit back and let these attacks overwhelm us.” She called for immediate and decisive action at political, administrative and local levels.

Party General Secretary, Rahul Gandhi, described the terror attacks as a slap on the face of the government. Cornered from all sides, Shivraj Patil offered his resignation owning moral responsibility for the lapses.

P. Chadambaram, who was the internal security minister under Rajiv Gandhi, has been named the new home minister. The prime minister Man Mohan Singh has taken over the finance portfolio.

The Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh may be the next to go. The fact that he led his son Ritesh Deshmukh and Bollywood film director Ram Gopal Verma on a disaster tourism of the Taj hotel has not gone down well with anyone.

The insensitive and casual remarks by the deputy chief minister and home minister of Maharashtra, R.R. Patil, to the effect that these things happen in big cities of did nothing to help the situation. Why should R.R. Patil continue after this?

The National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan’s resignation has not been accepted as of now. But, the UPA is apparently courting Brijesh Mishra, the former NSA under the National Democratic Alliance government who came out openly in support of the nuclear deal. Other bureaucrats who might be on the line of fire may be the Intelligence Bureau chief and home secretaries.

Scoring political points, the Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy described Shivraj Patil’s resignation as too little and too late. Ascribing the reason for the attack as a result of collective negligence of central government, he said it must go.

One wishes he spoke the same language when the Indian Parliament was attacked; when the Indian Airlines flight IC-814 was hijacked; when the Akshardham temple was attacked. The National Democratic Alliance government did not quit. The home minister, L.K. Advani, did not offer to resign. In fact, he went on to become the deputy prime minister.

I am trying justify anything. I am not speaking for anyone. But, such double talk must come to an end. If the government needs to go, the people will vote them out in the forthcoming elections. But, at least for now, help the government deal with the situation instead of finding faults with everything it is doing. We cannot change the government every time there is a terrorist attack.

We did not elect the opposition members to become a stumbling block for the ruling coalition. We did not elect them as opposition members. We elect every member to rule our motherland. If a party fails to win sufficient number of seats to occupy the treasury benches, it is their fault. For heaven’s sake don’t keep finding faults with everything that is happening.

You have to play a constructive role in nation building. Not a negative role as you are doing now. Your payments are also coming from the tax players’ money just as the members occupying the treasury benches. So, please give us our money’s worth.