Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Sunday that allegations about a scam in the spectrum allocation were incorrect but refused to answer a question about the Opposition’s demand that Telecom Minister A. Raja resign following last week’s CBI raids on the offices of the Department of Telecom.
“Well, Cabinet changes or reshuffles are not discussed in public, so it would be very inappropriate for me to answer that question, more so on foreign soil,” Dr. Singh said at a press conference at the end of his two-day visit here, when asked about the possibility of Mr. Raja being asked to resign.
Reporters quoted Mr. Raja as saying that what he had done in his Ministry was “with the knowledge of the Prime Minister,” but Dr. Singh said he did not want to comment publicly on Cabinet matters or on what happens in the Cabinet between his Ministers and himself. “It is not proper for me to join issue with Cabinet colleagues in public.”
“It is normal in a democracy to have differences of opinion and arguments,” he said, using the Hindi word ‘naunk-jhaunk,’ when asked about the Opposition’s allegations against Mr. Raja. “But that doesn’t mean that what the Opposition says is always correct.”
