Ronen Sen says 'sorry' to MPs

NEW DELHI: Indian envoy to US Ronen Sen on Monday expressed his “deepest regret” and tendered an “unqualified apology” before the Lok Sabha privileges committee for “hurting the feeling of Parliamentarians” but clarified that he had neither used the phrase “headless chicken” to describe the MPs nor had he given any interview to the portal which had attributed such the remark to him.

With Mr Sen, under oath, maintaining that his strictly “casual telephonic conversation” on the Indo-US civil nuclear deal with the portal reporter was presented in a “distorted and exaggerated on-record manner”, the Lok Sabha panel, according to some, is convinced by Mr Sen’s explanation and may let him off the hook even though the final word will come only in the form of its report to the Lower House later this month. Mr Sen will have to now present himself before the Rajya Sabha privileges committee on November 2.

Mr Sen is also understood to have told the committee that he was in a “disturbed state of mind” and was in an “in an unguarded moment” when he indulged in the casual conversation with the reporter.