The Hindu : Front Page : War of words between Manmohan, Sinha

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 05, 2007
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War of words between Manmohan, Sinha

Vinay Kumar

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday dismissed as “false” charges being levelled by the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that his government was acting under American pressure in not signing agreements with Russia on the Koodankulam reactors in Tamil Nadu.

In a brief intervention in the Rajya Sabha during a short duration discussion on the India-United States civilian nuclear agreement, the Prime Minister firmly rejected all charges levelled by senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, labelling them as “falsehood” being propagated by the main Opposition party.

The war of words in the Rajya Sabha between Dr. Singh and Mr. Sinha began when the BJP leader alleged that there was pressure on the Prime Minister not to join the Shanghai Cooperation Agreement meeting. Denying that there was any pressure on him to join or not to join the Shanghai meeting, Dr. Singh asserted: “All that I was interested in was to see that if the Indian Prime Minister goes to such meetings, he should not sit on the side table in the coffee lounge and not be involved in an active manner.”

Mr. Sinha did not stop here and made a reference to Dr. Singh’s tenure as Economic Adviser to the then Prime Minister under whom he [Mr. Sinha] had served as the Finance Minister.

It was the turn of Railway Minister Lalu Prasad to interject and say that Mr. Sinha had served as personal assistant to the former Bihar Chief Minister, Karpoori Thakur. “Yes, I was principal secretary to Karpoori Thakur when Laluji used to come to my room with recommendations,” Mr. Sinha retorted.

The Prime Minister reminded Mr. Sinha that as the Finance Minister, when he [Mr. Sinha] had gone to Japan he was not allowed to meet his counterpart in that country. “He thinks all people are like him,” Dr. Singh countered, prompting ruling party benches to applaud.

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