Will be happy if someone can do my job better: Chidambaram

NEW DELHI - Replying to continued criticism of his “anti-Maoist policy” by Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh, Home Minister P. Chidambaram has said he will be the “happiest person if someone can do the job better”.

“He (Digvijay Singh) is the general secretary of the party. He wrote an article in your paper. I am doing a job and I am doing my job to the best of my ability,” Chidambaram said in an interview published in the Economic Times Thursday.

On April 14, eight days after an attack by Maoists in Chattisgarh killed 76 security personnel, Digvijay Singh wrote that Chidambaram’s policy “was a narrow sectarian view, treating it as a purely law and order problem”.

He repeated the views in an interview to IANS July 15 and to a news channel later, saying he had “no regrets in criticising Chidambaram”.

Chidambaram said the results in the fight against Maoists were mixed. “The problems are that this is a conflict that both sides wage under different sets of rules.

“The Naxals can choose a place and time. They do not wear uniforms. While on the other side, paramilitary forces have to function in a battalion. So there are inbuilt problems in waging this conflict,” he said.

The minister said there was no evidence of any linkage between Maoists in India and Nepal. There is no evidence that those who train and fund Islamist terror are training Maoists in India, he said.

“I have no evidence of the Trinamool Congress having links with the Naxals,” he replied when asked about links between mainstream parties and Maoists.

“This is a canard being spread by the Communist Party of India-Marxist,” Chidmabaram said.