'Stay clear from corporate wars'

A day after Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the CPI(M) on Tuesday said the PMO should not become a "conciliation office" for warring corporates, who were "openly lobbying" for their interests ahead of the trust vote on July 22.

"The Prime Minister's Office should not become the conciliation office for warring corporates however desperate the ruling party may be to retain power," CPI( M) Polit Bureau said in a strongly-worded statement in New Delhi.

"The corporate houses are openly in the fray to lobby their interests in the run up to the confidence vote," the statement said, noting that a "dangerous precedent" has been set with the prime minister "being asked to personally intervene to mediate between the Ambani brothers".

Mukesh Ambani on Monday met the prime minister in New Delhi in the wake of Samajawadi Party leader Amar Singh raising a number of issues, including the demand for levy of so-called windfall profit tax on private firms.

Amar Singh, considered close to Mukesh's younger brother Anil, has also reportedly sought that the Prime Minister should intervene to bring peace between the Ambanis.