New Delhi, Sept. 29: The Centre today tried to cap the raging controversy about the rift between two top cabinet ministers but beneath the facade of unity lay a precarious compromise that may keep Congress president Sonia Gandhi on her toes for a long time.
Sonia’s decision to call on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh soon after a public show of unity by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and home minister P. Chidambaram was interpreted by some Congress leaders as a clear hint of the “unfinished task” that required urgent attention.
Insiders admit that the government has enmeshed itself too badly to be untied by a simulated photo opportunity.
Even this compromise was managed after hectic parleys between the top guns of the government and the Congress through the day even as spokespersons merrily dismissed the “rumours” of “rift” as “fictional”.
Sonia met senior leaders Pranab Mukherjee, A.K. Antony and Ahmed Patel in the morning and asked them to draw the curtain on the ugly controversy by evening at all cost — a directive that rattled the government.
The Prime Minister finally managed to make Mukherjee and Chidambaram sit together to hammer out a compromise. The two were joined by Kapil Sibal and Salman Khurshid in the finance minister’s office at North Block in the evening where a statement was prepared. Mukherjee read out the statement before the cameras and Chidambaram declared the matter was closed “as far as all of us in the government are concerned”.
The essence of the statement was that the inferences in the “background paper” sent to the PMO by a finance ministry official were not Mukherjee’s views and that the policy of the UPA government in 2007-2008 was a continuation of the policy adopted in October 2003, when the NDA was in power. Read More : http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110930/jsp/frontpage/story_14572145.jsp