Sanjiv Bhatt’s wife writes to Chidambaram for husband’s safety

New Delhi: As support for the suspended Gujarat IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt grew with people protesting his arrest, his wife Shweta Bhatt sought intervention of Home Minister P Chidambaram in ensuring safety of her husband.

Worried over Sanjiv’s safety, Shweta has written a letter to the Home Minister. In the letter, Shweta has expressed fear that more such false cases might be slapped against Sanjeev Bhatt.

In the letter, Shweta pointed that her husband was shifted to the City Crime Branch which has bad reputation of fake encounters.

She wrote that the branch was directly under the control of the present Chief Minister.

Speaking to media, Shweta Bhatt said that her husband was being targetted for speaking the truth.

She said that she fears for Sanjiv's life as the state police has been acting in a vindictive way. Shweta said that the police officers took her husband on the context of questioning her and arrested him.

Earlier on Saturday, Bhatt's wife had alleged that he was under threat and was not being allowed to meet his lawyer.

Meanwhile, a local court here has issued notice to the Gujarat government on the bail plea of Bhatt, who was arrested on Friday on the basis of an FIR lodged against him on charges of threatening and fabricating evidence.

2G: Chidambaram faces PAC heat after bitter FM note

New Delhi: Continuing the attack on P Chidambaram, senior BJP leader BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi, who is also chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, indicated on Monday that the Union home minister may be called before the PAC.

“As and when the PAC takes up the 2G Spectrum issue in the wake of new documents released by the finance ministry to the PMO, it is free to examine any one, including Chidambaram,” Joshi said.

Seeking Chidambaram’s removal from the Union cabinet, Joshi said the government is trying to reduce the importance of the finance ministry’s note to the prime minister’s office and mislead the Supreme Court, Parliament and the public.

The party demanded that finance minister Pranab Mukheree spell out the inferences in his note to the PMO where he disagrees. Taking a dig at law minister Salman Khursheed for his defence of Mukherkee and Chidambaram, Joshi said: “Salman may be a good lawyer, but he cannot defend a defenceless case.”

The BJP also tried to point out the differences among the UPA ministers by listing out the latest dispute between deputy chairperson of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia and rural development minister Jairam Ramesh.

Comparing the UPA ministers with a Scandinavian rodent, Lemming, known for its mass suicide tendencies, senior BJP leader LK Advani said: “One can say the same thing about the UPA government today.”

After truce, three union ministers meet Pranab Mukherjee

New Delhi,: Soon after the "truce" between Pranab Mukherjee and Home Minister P Chidambaram on the controversial 2G note issue, three Union ministers on Thursday met the Finance Minister.

Emerging from the meeting, Minister of State in PMO V Narayanasamy said they discussed the strategy for the winter session of Parliament, dates for which have not been announced so far, as several key bills could not be taken up during the monsoon session due to frequent disruptions by the Opposition led by BJP.

"This time, we will come out with a strategy to ensure the legislative business is not hit by disruptions," he told reporters.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal described the meeting as "routine" which was also attended by his deputy in the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry Rajiv Shukla.

Asked to comment on the 2G note, Narayanasamy said BJP was making an "issue out of a non-issue".

"BJP is doing the Opposition's job and we are doing the government's job," he said adding the controversy relating to the Finance Ministry note was over. "The chapter is closed.

This issue has been resolved," he said.

To a poser on the stand Congress members in JPC, examining the 2G issue, will adopt on Finance Ministry note, Shukla said they will themselves devise a strategy to go about the issue.

2G war: PMO's role may come under scrutiny, Pranab warns Manmohan

New York: After a 45 meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, an angry Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee declined comment on the 2G controversy as it was sub judice and he first needed to talk to "our valued colleague" Home Minister P. Chidambaram.

Pranab Mukherjee handed all the documents related to the 2G spectrum allocation to the PM as they met in New York.

Sources said that Mukherjee told the Prime Minister that the 2G note was released by the PMO and not his office.

He also told the Prime Minister that PMO's role in the 2G row may come under scrutiny, sources said.

Mukherjee will on Monday meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi to brief her about his meeting with the Prime Minister. 

Like Manmohan Singh, he too suggested that Sunday's meeting was essentially to brief the prime minister about his interactions in the US and not about a finance ministry note to the PMO on the then finance minister's role in the auction of the 2G spectrum.

"Unless I talk to the law minister, unless I talk to Mr. Chidambram, who is our valued colleague, unless I talk to the other party leaders and I go through all the papers, relevant papers, what comment will I make?," Mukherjee asked Indian journalists at a hastily summoned press conference in his hotel suite.

"And why should I make a comment on a domestic issue outside India? I am not fugitive. I am not leaving the country for all times to come," a visibly agitated finance minister said.

"Therefore, I will what I can say, what is permissible for me to say. I am not a lawyer. I have to take the expert opinion on it. Therefore, it would not be proper for me to make any comment on that."

"But as all of you wanted to meet me yesterday (Saturday) and I was a bit rude. That's why I thought I'll meet you," Mukherjee told journalists who had patiently waited for his arrival at the hotel, where he and the Indian delegation accompanying Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are staying.

"I am not going to give you any earth shaking news. I gave you trouble to come to apologise that sorry I can't give you anything beyond that."

In the note, the finance ministry says Chidambaram, one of the government's most high-profile ministers, could have prevented spectrum from being given away at throwaway prices by insisting on its auction -- implying that presumptive losses worth thousands of crores could have thus been avoided.

The note, which was apparently shown to Mukherjee and accessed by an application under the Right to Information Act, was prepared by a deputy secretary in the finance ministry and sent to the Prime Minister's Office March 25.

At the outset, Mukherjee made it a point to say that there was "no cutting, no cancelling" in coming to New York a few hours earlier to brief the prime minister about his interactions in the US and three major pending legislations back home.

He had come to New York "for a very simple reason as the prime minister is here" and besides the International Monetary Fund-World Bank meeting, he had to brief Manmohan Singh about the India-US Business Council, CEOs Forum and Investment forum meets.

"I thought I'll report to the prime minister as any action can't be initiated unless I talk to him," Mukherjee said.

But "If all of you are not interested, I am sorry I can't make any comment for the very simple reason that except newspaper clippings, I don't have any information.

"It's a matter which has produced a piece of paper, a note from the finance ministry to the PMO, obtained through RTI and has been placed in court."

Asked what he gave the prime minister, Mukherjee said: "I wished him and gave him a bouquet of flowers."

2G war: PM rallies behind Chidambaram, BJP demands resignation

On Board Air India One: Ruling out any infighting among ministers of his government, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday  fully backed Home Minister P Chidambaram on the 2G spectrum issue. 

"I don't know what note you are talking about. The whole 2G matter is before the court. I don't want to comment on a matter that is subjudice", he told journalists accompanying him from Frankfurt to New York.

"As far as Mr P Chidambaram is concerned, as Finance Minister, he had enjoyed my full confidence and as Home Minister he continues to enjoy and inspire my full confidence," Singh said.

Earlier, Manmohan Singh called Chidambaram and is understood to have expressed full faith in his integrity, amid a raging controversy over his stand on the 2G spectrum allocation.

During a 20-minute call from Frankfurt where he made a overnight halt on his way to New York, Singh discussed with Chidambaram the issue of a 10-page note sent to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) by the Finance Ministry in March last.

In a new twist to the 2G spectrum case, a note to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) from the finance ministry said the airwaves could have been auctioned in 2008 if Chidambaram, then the finance minister, had "stuck to his stand".

In the note, the finance ministry says Chidambaram could have prevented spectrum from being given away at throwaway prices by insisting on its auction -- alluding that presumptive losses worth thousands of crores could have thus been avoided.

The note, which was apparently shown to Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and accessed by way by an application under the Right to Information Act, was prepared by a deputy secretary in the finance ministry and sent to the Prime Minister's Office March 25.

The note became public after the Prime Minister had left Delhi on his foreign tour. The Minister has since been under attack.

The Prime Minister is believed to have counselled Chidambaram "to be patient" till he returns home from New York on September 27, highly placed sources said.

The sources also said that the Prime Minister was ready to say about the Home Minister's integrity.

CBI to study Swamy's dossiers

Meanwhile, the central government in New Delhi on Thursday  told the Supreme Court that the CBI will study the documents from Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy linking P Chidambaram to the 2G scam.

The government told Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice A.K. Ganguly: "The new documents filed for the first time before this court will naturally be studied and considered by the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) as usual and may be covered in the next status report."

Swamy on Wednesday submitted to the court documents demonstrating what he alleged was involvement of Chidambaram, now the home minister, in deciding the 2G spectrum pricing when he was the finance minister.

The documents filed by Swamy included a communication of Jan 30, 2008, by the department of economic affairs of the finance ministry recording the gist of the meeting between the then finance minister Chidambaram and Raja.

BJP demands Chidambaram's ouster 
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) demanded the ouster of Home Minister P. Chidambaram and said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) should investigate his role in the 2G spectrum scam.

"This clearly proves that the role of P. Chidambaram in as finance minister in the 2G scam is responsible," BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi told reporters here.

"Either he should resign himself or he should be dismissed, I demand it strongly," he said, adding that there should also be a CBI probe.

Congress defends Chidambaram

Coming in the defence of Home Minister P. Chidambaram after the opposition demanded his resignation over the 2G scam, the Congress described it as a "mischievous attempt" to create a rift in the party.

"The party does not doubt his integrity. This precise issue has been raised by Dr (Subramanian) Swamy in the apex court and is sub judice," Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi told reporters here.

Singhvi said the "mischievous attempt" by the opposition to create a rift between different constitutional functionaries was highly regrettable.

"Without waiting for the proceedings to be completed, it is highly objectionable and inappropriate for Dr Swamy or anyone else to pass premature judgment on the very same issue on which he is seeking relief," Singhvi said.

The revelations gave further ammunition to the opposition to target Chidambaram.