4 min readNew DelhiOct 2, 2025 05:28 PM IST
First published on: Oct 2, 2025 at 03:30 PM IST
SENIOR Congress leader and former Union minister Manish Tewari has said that former Union minister P Chidambaram’s remarks about “US pressure” after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks “cannot be disregarded”. The BJP has seized on Chidambaram’s remarks as proof that the UPA government acted under “foreign” pressure, unlike the Modi Cabinet’s “decisive” actions against Pakistan.
Tewari, also a Congress MP, told The Indian Express: “The official position of the Congress after two-and-a-half days of the attacks was that we must respond kinetically. It was articulated by me from the AICC podium. Subsequently, there was a CWC meeting on November 30, where then Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil was asked to go (resign) and Chidambaram was asked to take over. In their books, (former foreign secretary) Shivshankar Menon and (former National Security Advisor) M K Narayanan have written as to why they chose to forsake coercive action. Under those circumstances, what seems to emerge from the writings was that the coercive option was abandoned for diplomatic options after considering all options.”
Tewari said that it in his own sense, it was not so much external pressure. “After reading all these accounts, it was a considered call taken by then government. Chidambaram as the then Home Minister was a player, and what he says obviously cannot be disregarded.”
In an interview to ABP News on Tuesday, Chidambaram said the “whole world descended” on New Delhi to stop an act of “physical retribution” against Pakistan and then US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had asked him and then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh “not to react”. “I became (Union) Home Minister the day after the terrorists were neutralised… I think it was a Sunday when I was called by the PM, who said we are moving you from Finance (Ministry) to Home.”
On Wednesday, Chidambaram posted on X: “In no part of the interview to Megha Prasad’s podcast did I say that ‘US stopped us from retaliating after the 26/11 attack’. Yet, channel after channel and the media and the Twitterati are merrily attributing words to me. These are the perils of talking to the media!”
Chidambaram’s response followed the BJP’s attack on him and the Congress, over the interview, calling what he had said further proof that the Manmohan Singh government was “weak”. “Why had he hidden this information from the country for so long? It is shameful that the MEA overruled the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and Manmohan Singh could do nothing,” senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
From within the Congress, former Rajya Sabha MP Raashid Alvi also criticised Chidambaram, accusing him of “weakening the Congress’s pitch on US intervention during Operation Sindoor” and wondering about the reason for his comments. “There is a big question that under what pressure Chidambaram has given this statement after 16-17 years. These days, the Congress and (Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha) Rahul Gandhi have been saying that the Narendra Modi government is working under pressure from (US President) Donald Trump. Does Chidamabarm want to prove Gandhi and his party wrong?… This is helping the BJP,” Alvi told The Indian Express.
In the ABP News interview, Chidambaram said that the thought of “some act of retribution” had crossed his mind, and that he discussed the idea with the PM and other people “who mattered”. “I did not know that the PM had discussed this even when the attack was going on. The conclusion was largely influenced by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and Indian Foreign Service (IFS) that we should not physically react to the situation and must employ diplomatic means,” he added.
Chidambaram also argued that the 2008 Mumbai attack and Pahalgam attack could not be compared, saying the preparedness of India’s defence forces and positioning of intelligence assets were very different.
Congress leader P Chidambaram took over as Union Home Minister a day after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack. 
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