Arun Jaitley (top), P Chidambaram

New Delhi, Aug. 12: Two dead men saved the day for the home minister yesterday. No such luck today.

If the encounter killings of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Maoist leader Azad helped P. Chidambaram fend off Sushma Swaraj’s stinger missiles on Bhopal in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, Thursday panned out different.

Minus the encounter shield, the minister had to contend with Rajya Sabha leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley, who focussed single-mindedly on former Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson’s arrest and release.

Jaitley said Arjun Singh’s speech yesterday concealed more than it revealed.

“But who really took the decision to allow him (Anderson) to go out? ... An anonymous person — whom he does not name — an official of the home ministry, made a telephone call to the then chief secretary of Madhya Pradesh…” Jaitley said.

“Therefore,” he went on, “the entire thing, without the knowledge of the then PM, with the knowledge of the state chief minister, was handled by a telephone call from an anonymous source in the home ministry...”

Arjun, Madhya Pradesh chief minister at the time of the 1984 gas leak, had pointed fingers at the home ministry while exonerating then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Jaitley said that while the call’s recipient, the chief secretary, was no longer alive to corroborate this version, the then foreign secretary, M.K. Rasgotra, was still around to testify as the “gentleman who handled the whole thing”.

The BJP leader quoted a recent television interview in which Rasgotra had said the government of the day in Delhi had “no problem” granting Anderson safe passage to the US. “It was a collusive bail and it was a collusive departure, and an advance safe passage was negotiated,” he said.

Chidambaram’s response started off on a quasi-philosophical note. “We have two choices in a debate like this…. We can look back 25 years, look back with anger, look back with a sense of indignation and look back with grief or we can look forward and see what can be done...”

When he spoke of efforts to get Anderson extradited, Jaitley said: “I never realised that you would use your articulation for side-stepping.”

The verbal duel continued till Chidambaram pulled out from his armoury the only available weapon in the circumstances. “From 1993 (when the CBI sought his extradition) to 2001,” he said, “it embraces all of us in this House…”

In the period he mentioned, India was ruled by the Congress, a Congress-backed coalition and a BJP-led alliance.

Jaitley hammered away, quoting finance minister Pranab Mukherjee. “Pranabbabu has a favourite phrase and I am borrowing his phrase which he has used — ‘This instruction came from another planet.’”

“No,” Chidambaram replied. “They didn’t come from another planet.... This instruction, according to Shri Arjun Singhji’s statement, came from home ministry officials on this planet.”

When Jaitley persisted, Chidambaram said: “But, the point is that safe passage was indeed given, according to Mr Rasgotra. Anderson was allowed to leave, according to Shri Arjun Singh, when home ministry officials asked the chief secretary to grant him bail. I am in no position to confirm or dispute these two facts.”

The admission was a vindication of sorts for the BJP.