P Chidambaram moves to heal rift with SM Krishna, Mamata Banerjee

The recent fissures in the Union cabinet were sought to be patched up on Thursday with P Chidambaram doing most of the fence-mending. Chidambaram moved to placate external affairs minister SM Krishna and railway minister Mamata Banerjee, both of whom are upset by the recent comments of home secretary GK Pillai and the Union home minister himself.

At Thursday’s cabinet meeting, the home minister told Krishna that Pillai’s interaction with the media — where he talked of the ISI’s nexus with the 26/11 terrorists — was scheduled for publication only Sunday last. But the understanding was not followed by the publication and it was carried on the day he (Krishna) was leaving for Islamabad. Chidambaram agreed with Krishna that the timing was an issue of concern and he had taken adequate steps to ensure this did not happen again.

Chidambaram had to do some more patching up after Banerjee took offence at his comments at a National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) function in Delhi on Wednesday. The home minister had referred to the time taken to despatch teams for rescue and relief operations following the train accident on July 19. It was interpreted in a section of the media as a criticism of the railway ministry.

On an earlier occasion involving another train accident, the railway ministry did not issue a clarification after the home minister remarked that explosives may not have been used.

But on Wednesday, Mamata Bannerjee lost no time in denying delays in the arrival of the relief train after the Uttarbanga Express crashed into the Vananchal at Sainthia in West Bengal.    

The relief train, the ministry said, had reached within one-and-a-half hours of the accident. The NDMA relief team came seven hours after the disaster.

This statement put the home ministry on the defensive, and Chidambaram is reported to have informally told his cabinet colleagues that the media had wrongly reported his comments.

He also phoned Mamata Bannerjee to explain the correct position.
Bannerjee did not show up at the cabinet meeting on Thursday, but she informed prime minister Manmohan Singh over the phone from Kolkata that she will be present in the Lok Sabha on July 26 when parliament’s monsoon session begins. She also stated that a high-level inquiry was necessary to expose the conspiracy of the Marxists in the last two rail accidents.

Chidambaram remained uncomfortable the whole day and sought to avoid the media. It was rather unusual for the cabinet to take several decisions but not hold a media briefing. Even information & broadcasting minister Ambika Soni, who is the cabinet’s official spokesperson, felt there was no need to do so. Instead, the government decided to upload the cabinet decisions on the internet.

The prime minister, meanwhile, is planning to host opposition leaders Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley of the BJP for lunch on Friday. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and Pavan Kumar Bansal, minister of parliamentary affairs, will also be present among others.