Home minister P Chidambaram and finance minister Pranab Mukherjee separately met Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday, in the backdrop of the raging controversy over a finance ministry note to the Prime Minister which implied that Chidambaram, when he was finance minister, could have stopped the spectrum scam. Both ministers were tight-lipped about the meeting, though television reports, without naming sources, said the home minister had offered to resign. There was no independent confirmation of this, however.
Before meeting Gandhi shortly after his return from the US, Mukherjee told reporters that Chidambaram is a ?valuable colleague? and a ?pillar of strength?.
Chidambaram drove past waiting reporters after meeting Gandhi at her 10, Janpath residence without saying a word. This was Chidambaram’s first meeting with Gandhi, who is also UPA chairperson, after controversy broke out last week over the note to the Prime Minister?s Office on the stand taken by him when he was the finance minister.
Gandhi met Mukherjee soon after her discussions with Chidambaram. Mukherjee said on arrival that he will speak on the controversial 2G spectrum note only after discussions with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other colleagues. He told reporters at the airport that a full-fledged press conference will be held after the Prime Minister returns from his visit to New York tomorrow.
He later told reporters after reaching his North Block office, ?If it is needed I will say whatever (I have) to say after Prime Minister comes back and after we have discussions among ourselves.?
The March 25 note of the finance ministry suggested that the 2G scam could have been averted had Chidambaram when he held the finance portfolio insisted that the 2G spectrum be auctioned. The note to the Prime Minister?s Office was submitted to the Supreme Court on Monday.
Law minister Salman Khurshid downplayed the row, saying there is no scope for any worry in the document and that inferences drawn out of it were ?not correct?.
Khurshid also said the note was not worth keeping the media ?preoccupied? for a long time. At the AICC briefing, party spokesperson Rashid Alvi did an apparent balancing act, saying neither Chidambaram nor Mukherjee has done anything wrong.
Alvi said the party supported the statement of Khurshid that even if all parts of the note are believed to be correct, ?the inferences drawn are not correct?. Khurshid had also insisted that the note was actually a ?summary? and the official concerned had given his opinion over and above the summary in the note.
?People give their opinion over and above the summary. The importance of the opinion will be seen when the issue is discussed,? he said.
?I have seen the note. I don?t think the note has anything on which we should express worry…. Take it from me, this document has no life,? Khurshid said.