New Delhi, Nov. 29: The Congress’s highest decision-making body tonight authorised the Prime Minister to take any political, diplomatic and even military option in shaping India’s response to the Mumbai terror strike.

Shivraj Patil came under fire at a “stormy”, three-hour Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting without Sonia or Rahul Gandhi attempting to defend him, sources said. Broad hints were dropped but in keeping with the Union home minister’s seniority, the decision on his continuation has been left to Patil himself.

President Pratibha Patil has been requested to cut short her Indonesia visit by two days. Ostensibly, this has to do with her Mumbai visit to meet relatives of the police officers slain in the militant attack, but political circles were abuzz with speculation whether her arrival in Delhi might trigger a cabinet expansion and other major developments.

Nerves were frayed and tempers ran high throughout the CWC meeting, and Rahul was heard saying he was ashamed that such an outrageous incident had taken place.

“Koi hamare ghar mein ghus aye, thappad mare, isse sharmnak cheez aur kya hogi (Someone enters our house, slaps us... what can be more shameful)?” he was quoted as saying.

Sonia too said such incidents could not be tolerated, the sources added.

CWC members said they had not witnessed such a stormy meeting in recent memory. The discussions were so intense that the customary tea was not served till the fag end of the talks.

Patil made a feeble defence, offering statistics to claim the number of civilians killed in terror-related incidents during the UPA’s tenure was lower than that during the NDA’s, when L.K. Advani was home minister.

The sources said a group of young Congress MPs, known to be close to Rahul, too want Patil replaced.

All cabinet ministers from the Congress were invited to the meeting along with Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh. Finance minister P. Chidambaram, whom many want to replace Patil, enthusiastically took part in the discussions and helped draft the party resolution — a possible signal at a more political role in the near future.

The CWC resolution said “zero tolerance” towards terrorism was the only answer. It called on Pakistan to honour its promise not to let its territory be used for strikes against India. The committee urged the Manmohan Singh government to give a “fitting and hard-hitting reply” to terrorists who dared challenge the nation’s sovereignty.

The Congress also urged the government to take immediate and concrete action to revamp the security set-up to make it more responsive, and to ensure that terror attacks could be anticipated and pre-empted.

Congress general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi said the working committee felt India must stay united and respond resolutely to such challenges. Without naming the BJP, the Congress criticised “the political parties playing divisive politics” over such a tragedy.