It is a measure of the post-Mumbai attack panic in the government that, at long last, the Prime Minister has been able to persuade Ms Sonia Gandhi to allow the Home Minister, Mr Shivraj Patil, to resign. He should have gone at least three years ago, and indeed some would even ask whether he should have been appointed at all to such an important job. Unlike several of his colleagues in the Cabinet, he managed to get very little right. On terrorism, in particular, he failed spectacularly, preferring instead, when he was asked about it to hide behind two curtains. One was that he had done what he could by bolstering the policing ability of the States; the other was that law and order, being a State subject, there was not much more that he could do. Given how reasonable he can sound, most people — including, it would seem, the so-called party High Command — bought the argument. But the attack on Mumbai last week was too big a failure for it to let him continue. (Full Story from Business Line)