Home minister too contradicts NSA on Pak

NEW DELHI: It was the turn of the home minister P Chidambaram to confirm that National Security Advisor M K Narayanan suffers from the foot-in-the-mouth syndrome. Mr P Chidambaram, who refuted the NSA���s take on Pakistan���s response to the Indian dossier, told reporters that New Delhi has not received any response.

���There is no confusion. Both external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee and I have said that we have not received any response to the dossier given to Pakistan as yet,��� Mr Chidambaram told reporters.

The minister was responding to a question whether there was any confusion in the government in the backdrop of Mr Narayanan���s statement that Pakistan has reverted to India with a number of questions on the Indian dossier on the Mumbai attacks. Mr Narayanan had also said that the government will be responding to Pakistan���s questions in due course.

The home minister���s statement comes in the wake of charges that the government has become a tower of Babel. Mr Narayanan has not helped matters for India as his statement about ���close contacts��� with Pakistan coincided with reports that Islamabad was attempting to shift the blame for the Mumbai attacks away from it. A Pakistani daily said that sleuths were ���closing in on a Bangladeshi connection��� to the attacks.

Coming back to Mr Chidambaram���s interaction with the media, he clarified his earlier statement on the possibility of India snapping ties with Pakistan. He claimed he was misquoted. ���What I had said was that there are many, many ties between India and Pakistan. If Pakistan does not respond (to the dossier), these may get weaker and weaker and may one day snap. It is a thought process and not a policy statement,��� he clarified.