Chidambaram meets Sharad Pawar after attack

Home Minister P Chidambaram Thursday met Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar following the attack on him after a public event.

Chidambaram drove down to Pawar's Janpath residence soon after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spoke to the Agriculture Minister and condemned the incident.

The NCP veteran, who has very little security, later told reporters that the advice of Delhi Police in matters of security will be "important" for him in the wake of the incident. Asked whether he would pardon the attacker, Pawar remarked, "I am not a judge to give a pardon. It is a matter for the authorities in Delhi to handle".

Pawar said that what he gathered when the attack took place was that the person,who was standing as part of the media, was known for targeting leaders. The mediapersons present attacked the youth after the incident, Pawar said, adding that "he (attacker) did not utter one word about price rise.".

The 71-year-old leader however was surprised over the incident saying that in his 50 years of public life, he never had any enemies and do not have even now.

Besides the Prime Minister, Congress President Sonia Gandhi as also Vice President Hamid Ansari spoke to him on telephone.

Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit, a number of Union Ministers including Pawan Kumar Bansal, Farooq Abdullah, Subodh Kant Sahay, Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sushilkumar Shinde, V Narayansamy and Harish Rawat met him.

Leaders of various political parties including Jaswant Signh, Manohar Joshi, Sanjay Raut, Namo Nageshwar Rao, K Chandrasekhar Rao and PC Chacko also expressed solidarity with Pawar.