Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee held an unscheduled meeting here with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday morning, amid a growing domestic furore over the unfolding 2G spectrum scandal.
Mr. Mukherjee said the meeting centred on urgent economic policy issues, not the scandal. “I am going to Kolkata for Pooja immediately after I return to New Delhi,” he said, “and there were urgent matters the Prime Minister had to be briefed on.”
“Visit not cut short”
“I have not cut short any visit,” he said, responding to media speculation that he had rushed to New York to deal with the fallout from the spectrum scandal. “I have not cancelled any engagements.”
Ever since last week, after the disclosure of a Finance Ministry note detailing the government's decision-making processes in the build-up to the sale of spectrum in 2008, Dr. Singh's government has been facing ever-louder criticism at home. The controversy has overshadowed Dr. Singh ongoing visit to New York, where he addressed the United Nations General Assembly and held meetings with several world leaders.
Key Opposition leaders say the note shows Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram — the then Finance Minister — could have done more to ensure that spectrum was auctioned, rather than sold off, by the then Communications Minister, A. Raja, a decision that is alleged to have cost the exchequer upwards of Rs. 1,64,000 crore.
“Charges baseless”
But Dr. Singh has said there is no basis to the allegations and rejected calls for Mr. Chidambaram's resignation, saying the Home Minister enjoys his “complete confidence.”
Mr. Mukherjee told journalists in New York that he had no comments to make on the note itself. “Some piece of information from the Finance Ministry to the Prime Minister's Office has come out because of a right to information application,” he said. “Unless I talk to the Law Minister and the Home Minister, who is my valued colleague, and go through all the papers, I am not in a position to discuss anything.”
In any case, Mr. Mukherjee said, “I am not going to talk about this issue on foreign soil. I am not here to satisfy your inquisitiveness.”
