Pranab, Chidambaram meet Sonia separately over 2G row

Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Monday stepped into the 2G spectrum row that has engulfed the government by meeting Home Minister P Chidambaram and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee amid unconfirmed reports that the former had offered to quit.

Mukherjee saw Gandhi shortly after his return from New York where he had met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh against the backdrop of the raging controversy over a finance ministry note which suggested that Chidambaram when he was the finance minister in 2008 could have prevented the 2G scam if he had insisted on the auction of the spectrum. The note has angered the home minister.

As the intense effort to defuse the crisis continued, some media reports suggested that Chidambaram had offered to step down but there was no authentic word on it. Chidambaram had publicly stated a few days back that he would not speak on the controversy till the prime minister returns from the US.

Singh is due to return home on Tuesday.

Chidambaram, who met Gandhi first, was with her for 15 minutes while Mukherjee's parleys with the Congress President lasted 40 minutes.

Before his parleys with Gandhi, Mukherjee repeated his praise of Chidambaram as a "valuable colleague" and went on to say that he was a "pillar of strength" to the government.

Both Mukherjee and Chidambaram drove past waiting reporters after meeting Gandhi at her 10 Janpath residence without saying a word. Details of what transpired at the two meetings were not immediately known.

This was Chidambaram's first meeting with Gandhi, who is also UPA Chairperson, after controversy broke out last week over the note to the prime minister's office.

Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid downplayed the row over the note, saying there is no scope for any worry in the document and that inferences drawn out of it were "not correct". Khurshid also said the note was not worth keeping the media "preoccupied" the for a long time.

At the AICC briefing, party spokesperson Rashid Alvi did an apparent balancing act saying neither Chidambaram nor Mukherjee has done anything wrong.

Congress spokesman Abhisehk Singhvi said the finance ministry note has some judgemental sentences and there is no reason for creating a "sensation."

On reports that Chidambaram has offered to quit, Singhvi said it is "speculative."

"Where is the question of the home minister offering to resign? Where is the question of huge war going on there? These discussions between Constitutional functionaries are normal," Singhvi told NDTV.

Mukherjee said on his arrival from the US that he will speak on the note only after discussions with the prime minister and other colleagues.

He told reporters at the airport that a full-fledged press conference will be held after the prime minister returns home.

After reaching his North Block office, he said, "If it is needed I will say whatever (I have) to say after prime minister comes back and after we have discussions among ourselves."

Khurshid at his briefing said, "I have seen the note. I don't think the note has anything on which we should express worry."

"Even if all parts of the note are believed to be correct, I will say that the inferences drawn are not correct," he added.

Khurshid, who made it clear that he was giving opinion in his personal capacity and in the capacity of lawyer, claimed that the matter was "not so big" as has been projected by the media.

He said the media was giving unnecessary attention to the note which, according to him, had "no meaning". "I don't think the note should keep you (media) preoccupied for such a long time," the law minister said.

Khurshid said the note was actually a "summary" prepared by a official at the lower level.

"People give their opinion over and above the summary. The importance of the opinion will be seen when the issue is discussed," he said.