PM steps in: Full faith in Chidambaram

Singh’s remarks came after the party too rallied behind the home minister and trashed Swamy’s allegations.

Walking into the media enclosure of Air India One,Singh said: “As far as Mr Chidambaram is concerned,he enjoyed my confidence as finance minister and continues to inspire my confidence as home minister.”

The Prime Minister took just this single question on the finance ministry report that detailed a sequence of events and official exchanges on the 2G spectrum policy.

Although he said that he didn’t know “what note you are talking about”,the Prime Minister reiterated: “I have full faith in him (Chidambaram)… And in any case,I don’t want to interpret this as a fight (between Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Chidambaram).”

Flanked by National Security Advisor S S Menon and other PMO officials who are part of his entourage to attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York,the Prime Minister said: “The (2G) matter is before the court and is,therefore,sub judice and I would not like to comment on the subject one way or the other.”

Earlier,in New Delhi,Chidambaram declined to react to the Finance Ministry’s March note. “The Prime Minister called me last night from Frankfurt and spoke to me. The Finance Minister called me from Washington and spoke to me. I have assured the Prime Minister that I shall not make any public statement on the subject until he returns to India,” Chidambaram said in a written statement.

The Congress rallied behind the Home Minister asserting that Chidambaram’s integrity wasn’t in doubt. And rejected suggestions of a rift between Chidambaram and Mukherjee.

“The party does not doubt his integrity,” party spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said. Singhvi said the Finance Ministry note was an “ex-post facto summary of a junior officer” that cannot be held as a “verdict being passed”.

He then quoted from the CAG report to underline how it was the Telecom Department that kept the Finance Ministry out of the loop on spectrum allocation and pricing.

For example,Singhvi said,a meeting of Telecom Commission was slated for January 9,2008,and then postponed to January 15 and in between 121 letters of intent for spectrum allocation were issued — on January 10,2008 — “without consulting” the Finance Ministry.

In Washington,Mukherjee said: “The matter is under the scrutiny of the Supreme Court of India. We cannot make any comment on any matter that is sub judice.”

Senior party leaders said the issue in the note is about a policy matter — a choice between auction and first come first serve allocation of 2G spectrum and there is little to impute motive. In Raja’s case,they said,it was about allegations of favouritism towards some companies over others in the allocation of spectrum. (with ENS,Delhi)