PM uneasy over Arjun's salvo on serial blasts

NEW DELHI: Union human resource minister Arjun Singh, who in search of political relevance, has taken his favourite pastime — RSS bashing — to new heights. At a Cabinet meeting here on Thursday, the HRD minister quoted a former HC judge to claim that the attack on Mumbai was masterminded by the RSS and not the jehadis.

In the process, the minister once again put the Manmohan Singh government in an awkward position. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who stepped in on Friday to shield his government from the charge of politicising the attack, said the Mumbai terrorists were supported by elements across the border “without which their cannot hit with such an effect”.

Coming back to Arjun Singh’s intervention in the Cabinet on Thursday, it came after national security advisor M K Narayanan shared with the Cabinet information available with the government on the terror attack. According to the NSA, it was a LeT sponsored attack and the home grown jehadis in the SIMI provided logistical support.

But Mr Singh, who did not allow facts available with the government to come in the way of his “thesis”, said that the recent attack on the RSS headquarters at Nagpur was a fake one. Incidentally, the NSA and the government are of the view that the Nagpur attack was part of a larger jehadi plot.

But his collagues in the Cabinet were unimpressed became clear when the prime minister chose to ignore Arjun Singh’s “findings” and the Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar politely told the HRD minister to refrain from trivialising the issue. Mr Pawar also told the HRD minister that the former judge — the source of Mr Singh’s theory — has dubious credentials.

The government leadership is naturally upset with the HRD minister’s statements as it fears that such statements would give its rivals a handle to beat it with. With the government already under attack from within and outside for its failure to tackle the menace of terrorism, Arjun Singh’s attempts to politicise the issue can only complicate matters for it.

The development must be worrying for the Congress for another reason. Tt has blunted the party’s attempts to attack Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav for his defence of SIMI. Mr Yadav had on Thursday said that SIMI should not be blamed for the Mumbai bombings.

There is also fear that the statements of Mr Singh will only aggravate the sense of hurt experienced by the citizens of Mumbai. There was expecation that the Cabinet that met to discuss the attack would come out with some action plan to counter terrorism and some strong words against the perpetrators of the crime.

This did not happen at the Cabinet meeting. While the NSA restricted himself to providing the “macro picture”, home minister Shivraj Patil’s briefing on the incident concentrated on the post-attack visit of Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

The Cabinet’s uneasiness came through when Lalu Prasad Yadav reminded the home minister that the country expected some tough action from the government. He also told the meeting that the failure to take prompt steps would hurt the image of the regime and the ruling alliance.