On August 29, when the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence of Ajmal Kasab, Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde had said that it would not take him more than a couple of days to decide on the mercy petition of the Pakistani terrorist who was a part of the gang that killed 166 people in Mumbai in November 2008. Most observers did not take the statement seriously and members of the opposition advised him to walk the talk. In the first week of September this year, Kasab filed a mercy petition before President Pranab Mukherjee. On October 23, Shinde told Mukherjee that the terrorist must be hanged. Busy with prior engagements because of security concerns during Vijayadashmi and Diwali (and the International Interpol Conference,) Shinde left for Rome in the first week of November.
When Shinde returned to his office on November 7, the file from Rashtrapati Bhavan was on his desk. Mukherjee had rejected the mercy petition. Shinde immediately informed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of the decision and completed the formalities and documentation for the decision to follow. Home Secretary R K Singh was asked to convene a meeting and assess the security situation. The documents and order to carry out the death sentence were sent to Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on November 8. Shinde also informed United Progressive Alliance Chairperson Sonia Gandhi about the decision taken by Mukherjee. The document sent to the Maharashtra government had categorically stated that Kasab must be hanged before November 26 according to the order of the Supreme Court. The terrorist was hanged on November 21, inside Pune’s Yervada jail.
For once, there was no goof up, and no information leaks. Later, on November 21, a beaming Shinde couldn’t stop telling television crews how he meticulously planned the operation, and never let more than a handful people know about the operation. After Kasab’s execution, Shinde, 71, says that his ministry will not take more than 48 hours to take action against Parliament attack accused Afzal Guru. Opposition parties have already demanded that the government should not delay the decision.
Shinde, who hasn’t had much of a reputation for efficiency in the past, has had strong tailwinds urging him along his way. The home ministry was unable to prevent the wave upon wave of alarm when morphed and photoshopped pictures forced people from the Northeast settled in different parts of India to return home, fearing attacks. But in Kasab’s case, faced with extraordinary decisiveness and efficiency of the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the ministry found it easy to act. By contrast, former Home Minister P Chidambaram had to face the obduracy of Pratibha Patil who just would not act on the file.
Those who are in the business of security find Shinde easy to talk to. The minister began life in the Bombay Police and was a low-level functionary. He resigned from his safe job and joined politics in 1971, presumably fired by Indira Gandhi’s promise that not only would she remove poverty but also get Dalits a new deal. He became the finance minister and later chief minister of Maharashtra, but his most important job was as the Congress general secretary when he was in charge of Uttar Pradesh and the Northeast and was responsible for Sonia’s constituency, Amethi. This made him virtually her right-hand man. Shinde was her choice for the post of vice-president, an election that he lost. Because of her close interaction, Sonia’s relationship with him can be described in one word: trust. He was later made power minister where he did not distinguish himself, although he does not agree. Now is his time.