We are living in a vulnerable security environment, says BJP's Arun Jaitley: highlights

BJP leader Arun Jaitley speaks to the press at the BJP headquarters about the blasts that took place in Patna on Sunday.

Narendra Modi held a rally in Patna after the blasts occurred. Mr Modi, who is the BJP's prime ministerial candidate for 2014, had just landed in Patna when the news of the first blast at the railway station came in.

• Yesterday, we had organized a rally in Patna. The announcement for which was made months in advance. Many important political events have been organized in Patna's Gandhi Maidan.
• Many senior BJP leaders including our President were present there. The rally was a success. The rally was bigger than any other rally at the venue.
  
• The rally was a defining moment for BJP as it will fighting Lok Sabha elections on its own in Bihar.
  
• It has been 44 days since Mr Modi was declared PM candidate. There have been winds of change since then.
  
• We are a stable parliamentary democracy and it has never happened that explosions have taken place during an election rally with so many people present.
  
• BJP condemns the blasts.
  
• The blasts are indications of a weak security. We are living in a vulnerable security environment.
• The state governments and the central government needs to prepare itself to strengthen the security. 
• Fight against terrorism has been weakened due to vote bank politics. Bihar CM said that all security arrangements were made and they had no intelligence input about such an event. 
• Central agency sent a specific alert for yesterday's rally to state government on October 23rd.
• When a Chief Minister visits another state, the host state needs to certify an ASL, Bihar had not certified it.
  
• We were asked to call off the rally when we reached there because four blasts had already happened and it seemed possible that there could be more explosives. 
• Modi ji was asked to go back from the airport itself. He defied it and came to the rally. 
• We had decide how to handle the crowd without the advice of the Bihar police. No one from Bihar police spoke to us. We did not want to create panic.
  
• It was purely our good luck and good fortune that the bombs inside the venue did not explode once we went on stage.