Published: Saturday, Apr 10, 2010, 0:54 IST
By Harish Gupta | Place: New Delhi | Agency: DNA
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/analysis_offer-to-quit-restores-chidambaram-s-halo_1369552
Union home minister P Chidambaram played a masterstroke and turned the tables on detractors baying for his blood in the wake of the Maoist massacre at Dantewada. “They were asking me sarcastically, directly or indirectly, where the buck stops now. And I tell them, the buck stops at my desk,” he said on Friday, but refused to disclose any more at the CRPF function in the capital.
The content of his disclosure was as telling of the Harvard lawyer’s political acumen as was the timing. He knew that UPA chairman and Congress president Sonia Gandhi is out of town for a holiday with her family members. He also knew prime minister Manmohan Singh has already advanced his trip to the US, and that he has a date with president Barack Obama in Washington. He was also aware that there is no one in the Congress who can handle the responsibility of internal security affairs at this stage.
Therefore, he planned his timing well. Immediately after returning from Dantewada on Wednesday night, he quietly walked up to the PM’s 7 Race Course residence. Singh had no clue that Chidambaram was carrying a letter of resignation accepting “full responsibility” for the incident and stating that the “buck stops at my desk”.What transpired between the two is not known.
In fact, there was no clue of it until 11am on Friday when Chidambaram made the categorical remarks at the Shourya Diwas (Valour day) CRPF function. What followed later was obvious. The prime minister’s office (PMO) rushed in to say that the PM never sought the home minister’s resignation and that it had been rejected.
As if this was not enough, Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi fully backed Chidambaram and showered praise on him.
In a rare gesture, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Left parties, too, gave “PC” their complete support. The BJP said, “We do not want a soldier to be on the backfoot when he is on the battlefield. The FM should not turn his back on the crisis.” Of course, there was some piece of advice, too, when the party said that he is a “victim of his own idiom”. But they made it clear that “we don’t want PC to resign”.
West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who was recently targeted by the home minister, said that it was “collective responsibility” of the states and the Centre.
Ironically, more than the Opposition parties, leaders in his own party were waiting to corner him at the first opportunity. When the Dantewada carnage took place, Chidambaram couldn’t have blamed the BJP in Chhattisgarh or chief minister Raman Singh, who virtually handed over to him the entire police command to control, monitor and run the operations, for not cooperating. Even though the RSS had publicly criticised him for only “talking”, the parliamentary wing of the BJP was backing him to the hilt.
Why is Chidambaram feeling cornered within his own party?
Because of resentment over how he had dislodged national security adviser MK Narayanan and bundled him off to West Bengal. Also, he had confined the PMO’s role in the internal security affairs to almost nil by bringing the IB, RAW and other security agencies’ network directly under him. He has, in this scenario, nobody other than himself to blame for the poor planning, operation and ground-level situation. He was also somewhat peeved that the PM reacted differently when he (Chidambaram) had said that air power will be used against the Maoists. The PM had said that “no decision has been taken as yet” and even the air chief went public rejecting the home minister’s view.
But at the same time, he didn’t want to be a LK Advani who projected himself as Sardar Patel-II, or a Shivraj Patil either who refused to quit in the wake of 26/11 in Mumbai.
Instead, by making the right noises about resigning, he raised his own stature.
