‘Ready to say sorry if I hurt him’

Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh has said he was ready to express regret if his criticism of Home Minister P. Chidambaram’s handling of Maoist problem had hurt him.

Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh has said he was ready to express regret if his criticism of Home Minister P. Chidambaram’s handling of Maoist problem had hurt him.

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“If it has hurt, I am prepared to say sorry and withdraw my remarks...He is a friend of mine, we have worked together and I would not like to hurt his feelings...I had made an honest comment, which I thought I should. But if it has hurt him deeply, then I am sorry,” Singh said.

In a newspaper article last month, Singh, AICC General Secretary, had called Chidambaram “rigid” and “intellectually arrogant” while questioning his approach to fight the Maoists.

The Congress leader termed the Maosists as “misguided ideologues” and that they cannot be equated with cross-border terrorists.

“No one can defend their criminal activities. But they are not terrorists... you cannot equate them with cross border terrorists,” Singh told CNN-IBN in the programme Devil’s Advocate.