I am not an absconder, don't treat me as an accused: Sushil Kumar Shinde

NEW DELHI: A rattled Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde has said he is no absconder, seeking to explain his absence from the country for days after the savage Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh eliminated almost the entire Congress brass in the state.

Under fire from both the opposition and a section of his party for choosing to stay put in the US, Shinde said on his return to the country on Thursday, "I am not an absconder. Do not treat me as an accused."

The home minister clarified that he stayed back after the Indo-US Homeland Security dialogue on May 20-22, even as the entire team of bureaucrats accompanying him returned, because he had an appointment on May 28 with the renowned eye specialist Dr Neil M Bressler of Johns Hopkins Hospital.

"The Naxal attack took place on May 25, a Saturday. May 26 was a Sunday and May 27 was Memorial Day of USA - all three days were holidays in US. Till May 27, Dr Bressler was away to Malaysia. I saw him on May 28," the home minister said.

The minister said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had given him prior permission to remain in the US till May 28. Congress had on Tuesday disapproved of Shinde overstaying in the US, saying no tour could be so important after last Saturday's Maoist attack. The main opposition, BJP, on Thursday rejected the minister's explanation.

"It is a very unconvincing explanation for his absence at a time when the nation needed him most as home minister of the country," BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman said. The home minister has attracted severe criticism , time and again, for a variety of reasons, including the Delhi Police's failure to check crime and his odd utterances.

Trying to make up for lost time, Shinde said that he would visit Chhattisgarh on Friday, his first visit to the state since becoming home minister last August. The minister also dismissed the demand of state Congress leaders for President's Rule in Chhattisgarh, saying the situation in the state did not warrant so. He also did not join the Congress in blaming a BJP conspiracy behind the Maoist attack.

He even said there were no intelligence inputs suggesting such a grave threat to Mahendra Karma's life that he could have been given a central security cover. Before meeting the press, Shinde met Congress president Sonia Gandhi in the Capital.

An official close to Shinde said his eye ailment must be serious enough for him to meet a doctor in the US. "It can't be an ordinary problem since he sought a prior appointment with a world-famous doctor. In any case, he could not have joined the PM and Sonia Gandhi on a visit to Chhattisgarh on May 26, after the attack the previous evening, given the flying distance from US," said the official.