Pranab meets PM; calls Chidambaram a ‘valued colleague’
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the first time after the 2G note controversy erupted but refused to speak on the issue, saying the matter is sub judice and he would first speak to ‘valued colleague’ P. Chidambaram and other leaders.
After his nearly hour-long meeting with Singh at the New York Palace Hotel where Prime Minister is staying, Mukherjee said: "It would not be proper on my part to make any comment on that issue."
He was asked about the controversial note, prepared by a Finance Ministry official suggesting that the 2G scam could have been averted had the Finance Ministry then headed by Chidambaram insisted on the auction route instead of 2001 price for allotment of spectrum.
The Finance Minister began his comments on the 2G note saying, "I am sorry. I cannot make any comment on it."
Mukherjee said: "Unless I talk to the Law Minister, unless I talk to to Chidambaram, who is our valued colleague, unless I talk to other party leaders and I go through all the relevant papers, what comments I will make and why should I make a comment on domestic issues outside India."
The Finance Minister's cryptic comments came on a flurry of questions by journalists on the unusual meeting that took place after he flew out of Washington for New York hours before his scheduled departure.
"I am not a fugitive. I am not leaving the country for all time to come. Therefore what I can say, what is permissible for me to say as the matter is sub judice. I am not a lawyer. I shall have to take expert opinion on it," he said.
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