On a muggy August afternoon in Mumbai in 2003, after clocking in an eight-hour reporting shift, I was about to head home from the television newsroom where I worked. As I picked up my bag to leave, the phone rang. A panicked caller said a blast had been heard in a crowded market called Zaveri Bazaar. Before we could grab the camera to head to spot, word came of another explosion – this time, near the Gateway of India. Minutes later, I was on air and the anchor was asking me questions, one of which left me paralysed: “Does the police believe this is a terror attack and has any organisation taken responsibility for it?”

On Monday evening, when news broke of a car explosion near Red Fort in Delhi, memories of the 2003 twin blasts – which killed 54 people – came flooding in. No point jumping the gun, I thought. Let’s wait. Even television channels, uncharacteristically, waited. Eventually, the country had to wait two days to find out if the government considered the car explosion an act of terror.

In 2003, within hours of the blasts, then Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani had told reporters that the government suspected the hand of...

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