Published: Thursday, May 20, 2010, 1:36 IST
By Harish Gupta | Place: New Delhi | Agency: DNA
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_p-chidambaram-changes-tack-on-ultras_1385169
After leading the war against the Maoists from the front, Union home minister P Chidambaram has taken a step back. Sensing that the mood in the Congress establishment and the government is turning against his hawkish approach, he has decided to function within a “limited mandate”.
The cabinet committee on security (CCS) which met on Wednesday evening did not even take up the issue of providing “air support” to troops battling the Maoists in the affected states. Chidambaram had been batting for quite sometime for limited air-strikes against Maoists since they are heavily armed and operate in difficult terrain.
He clarified later that he never meant conventional air-strikes and had simply pleaded for “air-support” to paramilitary and police forces for troop movement and air-surveillance. He then said the “limited mandate” of his ministry is to provide only support to the state governments — Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Orissa — since law and order is a state subject.
This was similar to his predecessor Shivraj Patil’s line that the home ministry’s task is to provide logistics, manpower and other assistance to fight the Maoist menace and that the Centre cannot assume the power of a state government.
At the CCS meeting, AICC general secretary and Rahul Gandhi’s Man Friday Digvijay Singh punctured the “strike first, development later” line of Chidambaram.
But finance minister Pranab Mukherjee joined the debate on procedural issues. Though Singh had to eat humble pie for terming Chidambaram “very rigid” and intellectually arrogant, Mukherjee articulated his views with finesse.
