Mr M.K. Narayanan (pictured) handed in his resignation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and that the premier accepted. --PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
MUMBAI - INDIA'S powerful national security adviser resigned on Sunday in the wake of the devastating Islamic militant attacks in Mumbai, government officials told AFP.
Confirming reports by Indian news channels, the officials said Mr M.K. Narayanan handed in his resignation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and that the premier accepted.
An aide to the prime minister said 'more senior members of the government are likely to be shown the door' in the wake of the attacks, which left close to 200 dead.
The government sources said India's home secretary, domestic intelligence chief and head of the Coast Guard were likely to be sacked.
Indian Home Minister Shivraj Patil also resigned earlier on Sunday, saying he felt obliged to take 'moral responsibility' for the brutal Islamist attacks in Mumbai, an official government source said.
Mr Patil, who has been widely criticised in the media for failing to ensure India's domestic security, sent his resignation letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh 'owning moral responsibility' for the attacks, the source in the home ministry told AFP.
Mr Patil will reportedly be replaced by Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram.
Mr Patil has become highly unpopular during a long series of terror attacks and his ouster has long been predicted in political circles.
'Our Politicians Fiddle as Innocents Die,' read a headline on Sunday in the Times of India newspaper, part of a growing chorus of criticism.
Indian Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram will be India's new home minister and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will take over the finance portfolio for now, the government said.
Indians blazed criticism against their political leaders after the attacks in Mumbai which killed almost 200 people, saying their bickering and ineptness was at least partly responsible.
As commandos gunned down the last of the militants, TV channels were divided between covering the operations and an outpouring of venom against both the ruling Congress party-led coalition and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
'These are the people who are responsible for the system,' author and columnist Shoba De, a Mumbai resident, said on one talk show.
'The city would not have suffered the way it has had it not been for the complete and total abrogation of duty and the kind of negligence we've seen, the kind of indifference we've seen.'
Federal Home Minister Shivraj Patil submitted his resignation to the prime minister on Sunday because of the attacks, the Congress party said.
But that may not be enough to satisfy critics.
'Our politicians fiddle as innocents die,' the Times of India said in a front-page comment.
It said while the attacks engulfed Mumbai and hundreds were held hostage, saving them took precedence.
'But today, as heaps of bodies lie in morgues ... it is time to ask our politicians, are you going back to playing politics with our lives? Or are you going to do something worthwhile with yours?'
The Congress-party government was blamed for the loopholes that allowed the heavily armed Islamist attackers to come across the seas to land in Mumbai. Others decried the Hindu nationalist BJP for seeking electoral advantage.
'There is rage,' wrote a Mumbai resident in a blog published in the Indian Express. 'A simmering against our so-called leaders. A simmering against the unpreparedness for this attack.'
Mr Arun Shourie, a former BJP cabinet minister, said India's growing economic prowess had masked governance problems.
'I feel that this being mesmerised by growth rate figures is actually misleading, because the tree of the state is being hollowed by termites - the political class,' he told Reuters.
National elections are due in May, and both sides of the political divide were seen using the Mumbai attacks for their own ends before state polls in Delhi on Saturday.
The BJP said in a full-page newspaper advertisement: 'Brutal terror strikes at will. Weak government. Unwilling and incapable. Fight terror - Vote BJP.'
Congress, under fire from the BJP about national security during the 20 days of campaigning in Delhi shot back: '20 days of false campaigning cannot replace 10 years of development. Your decision'.
Columnist Vir Sanghvi wrote in the Hindustan Times: 'We are fed up of politicians who use terrorism as an excuse to win votes. We are fed up of their incompetence. As far as we're concerned, they are all the same.' -- REUTERS, AFP
