Lucknow: Congress leader Digvijay Singh
today expressed regret over causing "embarrassment" to the
party and the government with his newspaper article on Naxal
menace in which he had criticised Home Minister P
Chidambaram`s handling of the issue.
"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 here.
In a strongly-worded article in a leading newspaper,
Singh had early this month questioned Chidambaram`s strategy
of treating the Naxal issue as a law and order problem and
described the Minister as "extremely rigid" having
"intellectual arrogance".
The party had quickly distanced itself from the
comments.
Singh today 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 P Chidambaram," he said.
To a question on Maoist ideologue Tusharkant
Bhattacharya, who is presently in jail, telling a magazine
that the Congress leader wanted to open a channel through him
for dialogue with the Naxals, Singh said he knew Tusharkant
but would not elaborate as it was a "sensitive issue".
PTI
