Comments
The Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, has clarified that the office memorandum dated March 25, 2011 had inputs from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and the Cabinet Secretariat.
This office memorandum by the Finance Ministry hinted at the involvement of the Home Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, in the 2G spectrum scam.
According to sources, Mr Mukherjee has written a letter to UPA Chairperson, Ms Sonia Gandhi, and the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, clarifying the position of his Ministry in the preparation of the fact-sheet in the shape of an office memorandum.
The memorandum, signed by a Deputy Director and sent to the Joint Secretary in the PMO, says that this had been ‘seen' by the Finance Minister. Sources said that the letter mentioned that the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister and Secretaries from the Departments of Telecommunication, Law and Economic Affairs attended a meeting at the Cabinet Secretariat.
The letter, according to the sources, added that after the meeting, the Finance Ministry sent a 12-para note to the Cabinet Secretary stating the facts. The Cabinet Secretary sent it back with 14 more paras and asked for the document to be vetted and shown to the Finance Minister.
The inputs were provided by the PMO and the Cabinet Secretariat, the letter added.
The letter also said that since there were various statements being made in the entire controversy, like the Home Minister saying he had advocated allocation of 2G spectrum through the auction route, the Prime Minister's statement in the Rajya Sabha on February 24 saying that the Finance Ministry and Department of Telecom had come to an understanding, it was decided there should be a consolidated and comprehensive background note harmonising all viewpoints from various ministries.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.