Indian Home Minister Shivraj Patil resigns

New Delhi, Nov 30 (PTI) Indian Home Minister Shivraj
Patil resigned Sunday, taking moral responsibility for the
failure to prevent terror attacks such as the one in India's
financial capital Mumbai.

After being subject to severe criticism at Saturday
night's Congress Working Comittee (CWC) meeting, Patil met
Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh Sunday morning and
submitted his resignation.

Political sources said that 74-year-old Patil has been
of the view that the Congress party and the government should
not suffer because of the terror attacks and that is why he
had taken this decision.

They felt that Patil did not want officers of his
Ministry to be made scapegoats. After so much criticism about
his failure, he also felt a sense of relief by stepping down.

The 74-year-old Patil was inducted into the Union Cabinet
despite his defeat from Latur in Maharashtra in the 2004 Lok
Sabha polls and has been a target of the opposition as also
the detractors within the party over his handling of the
internal security situation in the country.

Patil had told the CWC meeting that as the Home minister
he "takes the responsibility and whatever the CWC decides, I
am ready to do", the sources said.

Patil's remarks came in the wake of criticism by several
leaders, including Union Ministers P Chidambaram, Kamal Nath,
Kapil Sibal and H R Bhardwaj, they said.

The refrain of these leaders at the meeting was that a
strong action is needed in the wake of the Mumbai terror
strikes and accountability has to be ensured at the higher as
well as lower levels.

Patil, who has been in public life for over four decades,
was brought into the Manmohan Singh Cabinet as he was
considered a complete Gandhi loyalist and Sonia Gandhi had
turned down repeated demands for his ouster from the
government.

Patil was also one of the serious candidates of the
Congress for the post of the President last year after the
tenure of A P J Abdul Kalam got over. But, the Left parties,
which were supporting the government from outside, had put
their foot down on such a proposal.

Patil was criticised for his statements whenever
terrorist strikes took place and he especially came under
media scrutiny for his sartorial fetish on the day serial bomb
blasts hit Delhi in September this year.

Born at Chakur in Latur district on October 12, 1935,
Patil was educated at Osmania University and Bombay
University. After graduating in Science, he completed LLM and
practised Law.

Patil had risen to the post of the Speaker of the Lok
Sabha when the P V Narasimha Rao government was in power
between 1991 and 1996.

He was first elected to the Latur Municipality as its
President in 1967. He became a Member of the Maharashtra
Legislative Assembly in 1972 and presided over the House as
its Speaker from 1978 to 1979.

Patil was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time in
1980 and was appointed Union Minister of State for Defence in
the Indira Gandhi government the same year.

During his political career, he held a number of
portfolios including those of Commerce, Science and
Technology, Atomic Energy and Tourism and Civil Aviation.

A voracious reader, Patil has also written a book titled
'Reminiscences and Reflections'. PTI Team
PMR