When the matter came to the government, a Cabinet meeting was underway. After the meeting, five people stayed back to talk about the matter – the prime minister, Chidambaram, Pranab Mukherjee, A K Anthony and Salman Khurshid. Pranab was of the opinion that it is no use complicating the matter further, and so he should be asked to retire in 2012 itself. To which the PM said that if he retires in 2012, a Sikh will become the army chief, and people will point fingers at him. To which Chidambaram said that in that case, the next person in the line should succeed the post. To which the PM said that the next person is a Marathi and the move will incite anger against him among the Sikh community that he helped J J Singh but not a Jat Sikh. These top five leaders could not come to a collective decision and as a result, the matter is still waiting in the wings.