Congress chief Sonia Gandhi succeeded in dousing the 2G fire, which had been raging for days, by bringing two senior ministers — Mr Pranab Mukherjee and Mr P. Chidambaram — together on Thursday to put the record straight on the controversial note on spectrum allocation.
While Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said, “Apart from the factual background the paper contains certain inferences and interpretations which do not reflect my views,” Union home minister P. Chidambaram followed with: “I am happy about the statement made by my senior and distinguished colleague, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee. I accept his statement. As far as all of us in the government are concerned, the matter is closed.”
But the overall 2G issue is unlikely to die down as it is not confined to the two ministers, known as trouble-shooters of the Prime Minister, and has already reached the apex court. Mrs Gandhi brought about a truce on the 2G note issue, which virtually put a question mark on the role of Mr Chidambaram as finance minister at the time of spectrum allocation.
Both Mr Mukherjee and Mr Chidambaram stood before the cameras in a display of unity on Thursday evening. After a day-long exercise at Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s 10, Janpath residence and the Prime Minister’s 7, Race Course residence, both Mr Mukherjee and Mr Chidambaram came before the cameras to clarify the situation.
Earlier, Mrs Gandhi held consultations with Mr A.K. Antony and Mr Mukherjee at her residence, and with other senior leaders.
The joint appearance of the two ministers at North Block, along with Mr Kapil Sibal and Mr Salman Khurshid, came after Mr Mukherjee and Mr Chidambaram had a meeting with PM Manmohan Singh where the matter was thrashed out. In the evening, Mr Mukherjee read out a brief statement that said a number of stories on 2G spectrum had appeared in the media in January 2011. He said a view was taken that a harmonised note based on facts should be produced for use by various representatives of the government.