NEW DELHI, April 9 � Taking responsibility for the worst Naxalite carnage on security forces, Home Minister P Chidambaram offered his resignation from the Cabinet to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who today rejected it, reports PTI.
�The Home Minister gave it (his resignation) in writing day before yesterday. The Prime Minister rejected it,� a PMO spokesman said today, shortly after the minister gave enough hints that he had offered to resign.
Chidambaram, who had come under attack from Left parties for telling West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya that �the buck stops with you� on ending political violence in the state, said at a CRPF function this morning that �I have been asked directly or indirectly where the back stops for what happened in Dantewada.
�I have no hesitation saying the buck stops at my desk. I accept full responsibility for what happened in Dantewada�.
64-year-old Chidambaram is also believed to have conveyed his intention to quit to Congress President Sonia Gandhi but there was no official word on that.
Speaking at the �Valour Day� function of the CRPF, the Minister said that on Wednesday immediately on his return from Dantewada in Chhattisgarh, where 75 CRPF personnel were killed by Maoists, he called on the Prime Minister and gave him in writing that that �I accept full responsibility for what happened (in Dantewada)�.
Tantalisingly he left everyone guessing when he said �And I think I will stop there. Let me not not elaborate.�
Soon speculation mounted that Chidambaram may have given his resignation letter to Prime Minister shortly after he came back from Jagdalpur where he had paid his last respects to the slain security personnel.
Chidambaram also refused to oblige reporters in the Home Ministry when he declined to say whether he had offered resignation in the wake of speculation triggered by his morning speech.
