The most recent serial blasts in Bengaluru and Ahmedabad have generated several questions for which answers could be elusive for a long time to come. It is amazing that the mighty Governments at the Centre and the States with powerful intelligence set ups at their command didn't have a clue of what was going to happen.

Active Intelligence is considered to be a strong tool in the hands of a good government. These are days when there are several gateways wide open to any nation. The best governed State will have a solid, concrete intelligence system in position.

Once our intelligence system was considered one of the best in the world. Now, there is a big question mark with regard to its efficiency.

The serial blasts have two aspects in respect of security. One is prevention. Of course it is the more important of the two. We have failed miserably in this.

The second is investigation, which is post-event. When we take into account what our governments at the Centre and States have done - or rather have not done - after the several blasts in the recent past, the only inevitable conclusion that we can arrive at is that we have failed in this also. We haven't got any clue to the several blasts that have killed hundreds of innocent people. There are surmises and guesses. Excepting that an organisation or the other 'claims' responsibility to the blast, our investigating agencies have not been able to pinpoint the culprits, let alone bring them to book.

This is a sad state of affairs. Either our investigating agencies are not free to act, or they have become incapable and incompetent. If it is the former, our Government should give them total freedom to act. If it is the latter, God save the nation.