Former Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram has opened up about the tense days after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, sharing how he pushed for retaliation against Pakistan but ended up relying on diplomacy instead.
In a recent interview with ABP News, Chidambaram described the behind-the-scenes decisions in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government. He explained how international pressure, especially from the United States, steered India’s response to the 26/11 attacks that killed 166 people.
Chidambaram stepped in as Home Minister on November 30, 2008—just a day after the attacks ended and amid the fallout from predecessor Shivraj Patil’s resignation. He recalls getting a direct call from PM Singh to switch from his role as Finance Minister.
“I turned it down at first,” Chidambaram said. “I’d just presented five budgets and wanted to see out my term before the 2009 elections.” But Singh insisted, noting that Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi had already decided. Chidambaram took the job the next morning, though he admitted feeling reluctant.
Starting fresh in the security role, he confessed he knew little about India’s intelligence setup in Pakistan and nearby areas. “I went in blank,” he said, later discovering gaps in defense readiness that needed rebuilding over the following months.
The idea of striking back did appeal to him. “Retaliation crossed my mind,” Chidambaram revealed. He discussed it with PM Singh and key advisors during the crisis. But the Foreign Ministry and diplomats urged caution, favoring diplomatic channels over military action.
Global leaders piled on the pressure too. “The world was telling us not to start a war,” he noted. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice even flew to New Delhi to meet him and Singh, pushing hard for restraint.
Chidambaram dismissed attempts to compare the 2008 response to hypothetical future operations like the mentioned “Operation Sindoor” in 2025. “That’s 17 years apart,” he pointed out. “Our forces and intelligence were in a different place back then—we had to build from scratch.”
He also pushed back against claims that Singh’s government was “soft on terror.” While owning his personal view that India should have retaliated, Chidambaram stressed he followed the team’s collective call. “I bring the government’s strengths and weaknesses with me,” he said.
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