Seeking Antulay's resignation is the last option for Congress managers because it would fuel the controversy instead of killing it, said a senior government source.
The Manmohan Singh government’s Antulay headache worsened on Friday with the cornered minority affairs minister obstinately refusing to oblige the leadership by retracting his controversial comments hinting at a right-wing conspiracy behind ATS chief Hemant Karkare’s death on the night of November 26.
Worried by the diplomatic cost for India in the war of nerves with Pakistan if the Antulay theory gains ground internationally, the government wants the minister to take back his remarks with an apology. Resignation is the last option because it would fuel the controversy instead of killing it, said a senior government source who did not want to be quoted.
Antulay is reported to have told Congress managers that he would rather quit the government than apologise for something he believes to be true. He translated his threat into action by shooting off a conditional resignation letter to the prime minister late on Thursday night in which he stuck to his guns. He maintained that he had said nothing wrong.
As the BJP and the Shiv Sena kept up the pressure on the government for the third consecutive day with noisy demands for Antulay’s head in both houses of Parliament, Antulay merrily fanned the flames with off-the-cuff comments to the media. “Both the government and the party should feel proud of me [instead of feeling embarrassed],” he declared.
He said he was merely asking for a probe into the circumstances of Karkare’s death. “Who pushed him into the trap of death, to be killed by Pakistani terrorists?” he demanded.
The government is not satisfied by Antulay’s attempts to wriggle out of the situation with belated references to Pakistani terrorists. The prime minister and external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee are believed to have told Congress managers that nothing short of a complete retraction would do. A Congress politician familiar with the process said efforts are on to persuade Antulay to see reason.
The politician acknowledged that Pakistani media reports hailing Antulay are causing great consternation here. If Antulay continues to peddle the conspiracy theory, it could blow a big hole in India’s diplomatic efforts to corner Pakistan for the Mumbai terror strikes, he said. It gives Pakistan an opportunity to blame terrorism on India’s fault lines, he said.
Significantly, Kamal Farooqi, chairman of Delhi’s Minority Commission and member of the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board, spoke on similar lines. “This is a time when we should present a united face to the world. Such comments weaken the hands of our security forces and the ministry of external affairs which is trying to put pressure on Pakistan,” Farooqi said. He described Antulay’s remarks as “very unfortunate”.
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