2G: Controversy over FM note refuses to die down

The controversy over a Finance Ministry note seemingly blaming P Chidambaram in the 2G scam has refused to die down with a new document emerging that the note was "revised" after "consultations" with the cabinet secretariat and the PMO.

The controversy over a Finance Ministry note seemingly blaming P Chidambaram in the 2G scam has refused to die down with a new document emerging that the note was "revised" after "consultations" with the cabinet secretariat and the PMO.

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At the height of the row over his ministry's March 25 note on 2G, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee suggested to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the sentence which appeared to blame Chidambaram, former Finance Minister, was "revised" after consultation with the Cabinet Secretariat and the PMO.

Mukherjee wrote to Singh on September 26 last after his return from New York, where he met the Prime Minister, that the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) was "not in favour of sending the note after its finalisation through a formal OM (office memorandum).

"It was upon the insistence of JS (Joint Secretary), PMO through her phone calls to Secretary, DEA that the communication was sent through a formal OM on March 25, 2011."

"The media and the opposition have specifically picked up one sentence contained in this note which makes it necessary to clarify the circumstances in which the said communication was sent by DEA as also how the sentence appeared in the note," the two-page letter said.