Indian home minister resigns over Mumbai attacks
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian Home (Interior) Minister Shivraj Patil, who submitted his resignation on Sunday over the Mumbai attacks, is a veteran politician with the unfortunate reputation of being somewhat of a dandy.
Calls for the resignation of the country's top security minister mounted earlier this year when Indian newspapers photographed him in three different outfits within the space of a few hours after a bomb attack killed 23 people in the capital.
Other newspaper reports said the 73-year old carried five combs with him on a business trip.
He stayed in office then, but the attacks in Mumbai, in which nearly 200 people were killed in a three-day rampage by Islamist gunmen, led to widespread public anger.
"Shivraj Patil has tendered his resignation," Veerappa Moily, a senior leader of the ruling Congress party, told Reuters.
"He has taken moral responsibility for the attack, which is a sign that Congress party men are never scared to own up."
Patil, who studied law as a student, has served as defense and commerce minister during a political career that started in the late 1960s.
His resignation comes barely months before general elections and reflects fears within Congress that poor functioning of the home ministry could cost them dearly.
"There has been talk of his resignation for awhile, but now the people are angry which we cannot ignore any more," said a senior Congress leader present at a party meeting to decide Patil's fate.
Even before the Mumbai attacks, over 200 people had been killed in militant attacks this year, mainly from bomb blasts.
But public anger has mounted with the latest violence.
"He should have resigned a long time ago, this is the least the Congress party can do now," Kuldip Nayar, a political analyst, told Reuters.
"I believe they argued how the Patil issue could affect their prospects in elections, but there was too much anger and I won't be surprised if more people resign."
(Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Jerry Norton)
