Govt. questions Chidambaram's 'sudden sympathy' for Afzal Guru

New Delhi: Taking a strong exception to P. Chidambaram's remark that the ‘Afzal Guru case was perhaps not correctly decided', Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday said the execution of the 2001 Parliament attack convict took place during the UPA regime and said the Congress Party must give an explanation in this regard.

"I haven't read the report yet. Chidambaram ji had served as the home minister of the country and execution took place during their (UPA) regime. The then government gave its nod to the same. Why this new sympathy all of a sudden? Naidu told the media when asked to respond on Chidamabaram's remark on Afzal Guru.

Chidambaram earlier told a leading English daily in an interview that he felt it was possible to hold an 'honest opinion' that the case was 'perhaps not correctly decided' and that there were 'grave doubts about the extent of his involvement' in the 2001 Parliament attack.

"I think it is possible to hold an honest opinion that the Afzal Guru case was perhaps not correctly decided," said Chidambaram, who was the country's Home Minister from 2008 to 2012, before being switched to the Finance Ministry.

"But being in government you cannot say the court has decided the case wrongly because it was the government that prosecuted him. But an independent person can hold an opinion that the case was not decided correctly," he added.

Afzal Guru was executed in 2013 when Sushilkumar Shinde was the Home Minster.