DHNS
New Delhi, Apr 9: Home Minister P Chidambaram offered to quit his post in the wake of the Dantewada massacre by Naxals, but Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday rejected his resignation.
Taking full responsibility, 64-year-old Chidambaram said this morning that the buck stopped at his desk with regard to the Tuesday's Naxal attack.
"The Home Minister gave it (his resignation) in writing the day before yesterday. The Prime Minister rejected it," a PMO spokesman said.
Speaking at a CRPF function here, Chidambaram had accepted ''full responsibility'' for the Dantewada massacre.
Declining to go any further, he said, "Let me not elaborate. I am proud of the CRPF." 75 personnel from CRPF's 62nd Battalion and one Chhattisgarh policeman were killed in an ambush by the Maoists in Dantewada.
During a visit to Naxal stronghold of Lalgarh in West Bengal on April 4, Chidambaram had said he had told Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee that the "buck stops" with him on ending political violence in the state.
Upset over the remark, the Chief Minister had said this was not the language used by politicians and that he will do his job and the Home Minister should do his.