Chidambaram runs into Punjab clashes

Home Minister P Chidambaram arrived in his North Block office at 9 am today amid reports of caste clashes in Punjab following the death of a Sikh sect leader in a clash in a gurdwara in Austrian capital Vienna.

He quickly settled down with Home secretary Madhukar Gupta to get an update on the security front — about Punjab, Left-wing extremism, terrorism, border situation and the North-East.

Already the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had rushed 14 companies of paramilitary forces to Punjab after angry mobs had run amok, setting buses, trains and property afire and blocking highways in protest against violent clashes in Vienna.

Chidambaram also ordered a helicopter to be sent for the state government and for keeping 11 more police companies ready. Initial reports from Vienna had hinted that assailants were from outside the country.

A delegation of recently-elected Members of Parliament from the state, led by Manish Tewary of the Congress, apparently wanted to seek the attention of Chidambaram on the situation in the state, but had to beat a hasty retreat. “The elected representatives must go to their constituencies to help the administration to contain the violence,” Chidambaram is reported to have told the anxious visitors in his typical no-nonsense manner.

The home minister later told reporters that one of the key issues he dealt with today was the much-delayed mercy petitions of some 28 prisoners on death row to the President. “I gave directions to put up the files one by one in the actual sequence to me so that I can dispose them of at the earliest,” he said.

This name of Azfal Guru, a Kashmiri sentenced to death in the Parliament attack case, also figures in the list. Guru’s deferred hanging was cited as an evidence of Manmohan Singh government’s “weak handling of terrorism” by the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

In the evening, Chidambaram met media persons for a brief interaction. He announced that his plans would be drawn from the Congress manifesto that had promised ''to deal with terrorism without weakening the delicate strands that bind us together.’’ Having accomplished all he had promised to do in 100 days from February 20 to May 31, Chidambaram is now awaiting his fresh home work from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the next 100 days.