Cong backs Chidambaram, rules out rift in govt

New Delhi, Sept 22 (PTI) Unfazed by Opposition demand
for his resignation, the Indian government and Congress on
Thursday threw their weight behind Home Minister P Chidambaram
dismissing a note by Finance Ministry to the PMO on 2G issue,
which has sparked a controversy, as "a junior officer's
subjective judgement".
"A note of finance ministry is not a note by Finance
Minister. It's an ex-post facto evaluation not a verdict. It
is a junior officer's subjective judgement.
"If you take a note written by a junior officer in March
2011 out of the leaf and read it without seeing what happened
before or after it, facts will definitely get distorted,"
party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi told reporters in reply to
a volley of questions on the issue.
I&B Minister Ambika Soni and Law Minister Salman
Khurshid spoke in similar vein and said there could be "no
question mark" on Chidambaram.
"... there is no question mark whatsoever...nothing of
questionable nature on the conduct of (then Finance Minister)
P Chidambaram ...I can say this with full authority. He
deserves the support of the government," Khurshid said.
Dismissing claims of a rift within the government over
the Finance Ministry's "secret" note to the PMO, she said,
"there is nothing contentious, nothing new, nothing revealing
in the letter that should excite anybody."
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also called Chidambaram
from Frankfurt and is understood to have expressed full faith
in his integrity, a day after the note submitted to the
Supreme Court by Janata party leader Subramanian kicked up a
political storm.
The note suggested that the 2G scam could have been
avoided if the Finance Ministry, then under Chidambaram, had
insisted on spectrum allocation through auction.
Both Chidambaram, who was touring quake-hit areas in
Sikkim, and Mukherjee, who is in New York, declined to comment
on the raging row over the note.
Chidambaram later said in a press release that the Prime
Minister spoke to him from Frankfurt and the Finance Minister
called from Washington and that he has assured the Prime
Minister that he will not make any public statement on the
issue till the Singh returns to India.
A Congress leader, who declined to be identified felt
that a solution to the issue could be possible after Mukherjee
returns from USA and sets the record right.
Admitting that the controversy has come at a wrong
time, he said there can be no solution unless the "top four"
in the party and the government-- Congress President Sonia
Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the two ministers
embroiled in controversy -- sit together to find a solution.
The unease in the party over the issue was clear with a
leader saying that "personal clashes" cannot be allowed to
take a toll on the entire government.
Sources in the party felt that if the Supreme Court gives
a go ahead for a CBI probe in the matter, it could be a very
delicate situation for the party and the continuance of the
Home Minister could be a difficult proposition.
At the AICC briefing Singhvi insisted that, "Congress
rejects the allegations of Swamy" but steered clear of demands
that there should be a CBI probe against the Home Minister.
"The matter is sub-judice and Subramaniam Swamy is also
praying for an order for a CBI inquiry," he pointed out.