It might be tempting to view the prime minister's vitriolic attack on the former Union minister, P Chidambaram, for his remarks on Kashmir last month as election-time rhetoric, aimed at playing the 'nationalist' card in poll-bound Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat.

In an interaction with local businessmen and intelligentsia in Rajkot on October 28, Chidambaram - not exactly a seditious jholawallah by any stretch of the imagination -- advocated a more accommodative approach to India's most intractable national problem. Read more