Pranab Mukherjee, Chidambaram meet Sonia Gandhi over 2G row

NEW DELHI: Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Monday had separate meetings with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Home Minister P Chidambaram, stepping in to defuse the raging row over the controversial Finance Ministry note on 2G spectrum allocation.

Before meeting Sonia shortly after his return from the US, Mukherjee told reporters that Chidambaram is a "valuable colleague" and a "pillar of strength."

Chidambaram drove past waiting reporters after meeting Gandhi at her 10 Janpath residence without saying a word.

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(PMO) on the stand taken by him when he was the Finance Minister.

Details of what transpired at this meeting were not immediately known.

Gandhi met Mukherjee soon after her discussions with Chidambaram.

Mukherjee said on arrival that he will speak on the controversial 2G spectrum note only after discussions with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other colleagues.

He told reporters at the airport that a full-fledged press conference will be held after the Prime Minister returns from his visit to New York tomorrow.

He later told reporters after reaching his North Block office, "If it is needed I will say whatever (I have) to say after Prime Minister comes back and after we have discussions among ourselves."

The March 25 note of the Finance Ministry suggested that the 2G scam could have been averted had Chidambaram when he held the Finance portfolio insisted that the 2G spectrum be auctioned. The note to the Prime Minister's Office(PMO) was submitted to the Supreme Court yesterday.

Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid downplayed the row over the Finance ministry 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.