“What’s the point? If you are coming to make a political point, it’s not the time. If she is coming to bring something for the aggrieved people, we all welcome her. Until you start changing the way you deal with us (states), how can you help us by coming here? If the UPA had re-introduced POTA or if we had got the RCOCA (Rajasthan Control of Organised Crime Bill which is pending with the Centre), may be, we would not have it (the blasts),” Vasundhara Raje told The Indian Express on Wednesday evening.

When Gandhi visited the state during the floods last year, Rajasthan demanded Rs 3,200 crore. “We got nothing. The state government bore the entire expenses of rehabilitation and compensation,” said Vasundhara Raje. Earlier, Sonia had gone to Banswara but people got “nothing” from it.

“When I go somewhere, I want to see the problems of people and try to solve them. Otherwise, what’s point of going there?” the CM said.

Miffed by the Centre’s perceived attempt to play politics over the blasts, she demanded a meeting of all Chief Ministers to discuss internal security. She was particularly perturbed about Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal’s comment immediately after the blasts that the Centre had given intelligence inputs about a terror threat to the state.

“How could we ignore this attempt to play politics at such tragic times? What intelligence inputs do they send? It comes every month or every quarterly and the contents remain the same — never specific, just general. They never say whether there could be a terror strike in three days or even three months. They never say where it could happen or when. Their intelligence inputs are like weather reports. Why can’t we have a meeting of all CMs to discuss and find ways to work together?” Vasundhara Raje said.

Citing a string of recent terror strikes in different states, she emphasised the need for the Centre and the states to come together and share intelligence. Recalling that the RCOCA Bill has been pending with the Centre for two years which also refused to re-introduce POTA, she said the states needed something to deal with terror with an “iron hand”.

“If the Centre had no problem with similar laws in Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh, why not Rajasthan and Gujarat? You have to give a level-playing field, especially because Rajasthan and Gujarat have not witnessed such incidents in the past,” she said.