By IANS,
New Delhi: Congress leader Digvijay Singh, who often courts controversy over his remarks, has said he was ticked off by Congress president Sonia Gandhi for criticising Home Minister P. Chidambaram over his anti-Maoist policy last year.
“She (Gandhi) did tick me off and I went and apologised to Chidambaram,” Digvijay Singh told Karan Thapar on the Devil’s Advocate programme telecast on CNN-IBN Sunday.
The Congress leader said that it was “only gag on me after I wrote a piece on Chidambaram”.
Digvijay Singh in an article on a national newspaper had called the home minister “extremely rigid” and “intellectually arrogant” because he was treating the Maoist issue as just a law and order problem.
Digvijay Singh said Chidambaram’s approach on the Maoist issue was a “narrow sectarian view, treating it as a purely law and order problem”.
The Congress leader was asked in the interview that his often controversial statements were bringing a bad name for Rahul Gandhi because he was his advisor.
“Absolutely wrong. I am neither an advisor nor a mentor to Rahul Gandhi. Who has said that I am a mentor to Rahul Gandhi? No one in my party has said this to me,” the Congress general secretary quipped.
Denying the charge of “communalising terror”, Digvijay Singh said: “I reject the charge of communalising terror as I have always kept communal Hindus and Muslims on the same footing.”
He was referring to his comments made after the July 13 Mumbai serial bomb blasts. The Congress leader had said that he did not rule out the involvement of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)in the Mumbai serial blasts, evoking strong reaction from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
He had also said that the RSS was making “bomb factories” and that the role of all kinds of terror groups, including Hindu outfits, should be probed in connection with the Mumbai blasts.
Digvijay clarified that he had not attacked anyone.
“What I said was that you cannot rule out the possibility of any outfit in the attack. All the stories against me are false and biased,” he added.