Former Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram on Wednesday denied claims after media reports suggested him claiming that United States stopped India from taking military action against Pakistan after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. Chidambaram in a post on X clarifies that the media had misquoted him.
Chidambaram blames the media
Chidambaram said that he never said in his interview on Megha Prasad’s podcast that “US stopped us from retaliating after the 26/11 attack.” He added that various media channels and social media users were wrongly attributing these words to him, calling it “the perils of talking to the media.”
This clarification comes a day after Chidambaram shared that he had been inclined to consider retaliatory action against Pakistan after the attacks but was eventually persuaded not to go ahead.
What exactly did Chidambaram say in the podcast?
“Condoleezza Rice, who was then US Secretary of State, flew in two or three days after I took over, to meet me and the Prime Minister. And to say, ‘please don’t react’. I said this is a decision that the government will take.
Without disclosing any official secret, it did cross my mind that we should do some act of retribution,” the Congress leader had said in the podcast.
Chidambaram said he had discussed the possibility of retaliation with the Prime Minister and other key official and recalled that the PM had then considered it even while the attack was still happening.
In the end, the decision, largely guided by the Ministry of External Affairs and the Indian Foreign Service, was not to take any direct military action.
Row over Chidambaram’s comments
The revelation sparked controversy, with the BJP accusing Congress of “mishandling” the situation under foreign pressure. Responding to Chidambaram’s interview, Union Minister Pralhad Joshi posted on X that after 17 years, Chidambaram admitted what the nation already knew, that the 26/11 attacks were “mishandled due to pressure from foreign powers”, calling it “too little, too late.”