Thaindian News

New York, Sep 25 (IANS) The meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on the 2G spectrum issue in the wake of a finance ministry note involving Home Minister P. Chidambaram has begun.

Mukherjee, who arrived here from Washington late Saturday night after attending the annual meetings of the World Bank Group in Washington, declined to talk to journalists as Secret Service personnel escorted him to his room in the hotel where the Indian delegation accompanying the prime minister is also staying.

A senior MEA official had to make way for Mukherjee’s accommodation in a suite in view of pressure on hotels due to the ongoing General Assembly session of the UN for which several delegations from various countries are currently in the city.

The prime minister has rejected the Opposition demand for the resignation of Chidambaram over the 2G issue, saying: “Of course, all my ministers, they enjoy (my) confidence in full measure.”

Asked by Indian reporters as he came out of the UN General Assembly Saturday, Manmohan Singh said he is not bothered by the Opposition campaign against his government on Chidambaram’s alleged culpability on the 2G allocation.

“Why should I be bothered?”, he said. “The business of the Opposition is to oppose or depose the government,” he said, adding: “There is nothing unusual (in what) they are doing.”

Manmohan Singh also sought to minimise the significance of the meeting in political terms by insisting that he was only coming to brief him about many things happening in the world.

“There are lot of things happening in the world. There is a global economic crisis. So he would like to brief me,” the prime minister said.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)