Diggy sorry to embarrass party & govt

NEW DELHI: Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh on Thursday expressed regret over causing “embarrassment” to the party and the government with his article on the Naxal menace. In his article in ET, Mr Singh had criticised home minister P Chidambaram’s strong campaign against Naxalites.

“He (Chidambaram) has been my friend for a long time and still remains so. The timing of the write-up was such that the government and the party both faced embarrassment for which I express regret,” the AICC general secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh told reporters in Lucknow.

In a strongly-worded article, Mr Singh called Mr Chidambaram “rigid” and ridden with “intellectual arrogance” as he argued against what he called the “narrow sectarian” approach of the home minister to Maoist insurgency.

The party had distanced itself from his views that came barely days after the Dantewada massacre. Mr Singh on Thursday said that there were several details regarding “the failure of the Chhattisgarh police and its intelligence in Dantewada leading to the Dantewada tragedy as well as unholy nexus between some BJP leaders and Naxalites” in the article. “Unfortunately, the media highlighted only the part which referred to home minister Chidambaram,” he said.

The Congress general secretary has been under attack from BJP for what it termed the “soft on Naxals” approach. Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh, whose government was also attacked by Digvijay Singh in the ET article, had suggested that in attacking Mr Chidambaram, Mr Singh was motivated more by the desire to settle factional scores than any concern about anti-Naxal strategy. Mr Singh had also taken a swipe at Mr Digvijay Singh recalling his stint as chief minister of Madhya Pradesh when Chhattisgarh was part of it. “He (Digvijay Singh) can’t spell out a single contribution towards Bastar region or its people during the seven years of his governance.”