Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee is cutting short his visit here and rushing to New York to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh amid a storm back home over his ministry’s note to the PMO on the 2G scam.
Sources told PTI that Mr Mukherjee, who is in Washington to attend the annual meetings of the
International Monetary Fund and World Bank, is heading to New York to meet the Prime Minister for “obvious” reasons.
The Opposition is gunning for home minister P. Chidambaram after a finance ministry note, that said 2G spectrum could have been auctioned if the then finance minister had insisted, surfaced.
The unexpected development takes place a day after the Prime Minister said he fully backed Mr Chidambaram who “continues to enjoy and inspire my full confidence”.
Asked whether there was any rift between his two top ministers, Dr Singh said there was no infighting. The Prime Minister also spoke to Mr Chidambaram on the issue from Frankfurt.
Mr Mukherjee had also on Thursday spoken to the home minister. Dr Singh is in New York to attend the 66th session of the UN General Assembly and is scheduled to address the world body on Saturday. — PTI