Ronen Sen apologises before parliamentary panel

By IANS

New Delhi : India’s ambassador to the US Ronen Sen Monday tendered an unqualified apology before the privileges committee of the Lok Sabha over his remarks that were seen as describing critics of the India-US nuclear deal as “headless chicken”.


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“Ambassador Sen appeared before the committee and gave his statement and evidence along with his explanation (of his comments),” V. Kishore Chandra Deo, the Congress MP who heads the 15-member Lok Sabha committee, told IANS.

“Some members asked for clarifications (about his comments) and the meeting ended with that,” he said.

Committee members said Sen also reiterated his unqualified apology for the comments.

Asked if the committee was satisfied with the envoy’s clarification, Dev said: “There is no question of satisfaction or dissatisfaction. We have to go through the transcript (of the meeting), discuss it and come to an appropriate decision.

It was perhaps the first time a top diplomat appeared before the privileges panel. Sen will appear before the Rajya Sabha privileges committee on Nov 2.

At a time when the nuclear deal was being debated in the monsoon session of parliament, Sen was quoted saying in a media interview: “Why do you have all this running around like headless chicken, looking for a comment here or comment there, and these little storms in a tea cup?”

The remarks infuriated MPs from both the opposition and the government’s communist allies. Sen later said that he was misquoted and his remarks referred not to politicians, but to journalists.

Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee had referred the issue to the committee after receiving a reply by the external affairs ministry saying Sen had already expressed unqualified apology for the remarks, deemed insulting by some politicians.

A decision to summon Sen before the privileges committee of the Rajya Sabha was taken recently at a meeting presided over by the deputy chairman of the upper house, K. Rahman Khan.

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