By IANS,
New Delhi: The Congress Thursday said that the controversy over Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh’s remarks in Beijing should be treated as closed after he met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
“The minister has given his explanation to the prime minister and the Congress president. They will take a final decision. There is no need to stoke the issue. It should be treated as closed,” party spokesman Shakeel Ahmed told IANS.
Ramesh met Home Minister P. Chidambaram at his North Block office Wednesday and sought to clarify his statements in Beijing.
The party spokesman did not comment on reports that Ramesh had offered to resign in his talks with the prime minister.
A senior party leader, however, said informally that Ramesh had not offered to resign but had given explanation to the two top party leaders.
Ramesh created a storm with his remarks at a conference in Beijing last week that the home ministry was paranoid about issuing visas to Chinese workers for projects in India.
The prime minister, after going through Chidambaram’s letter on the subject, telephoned Ramesh and made it clear that a member of his ministerial council cannot comment on the functioning of other ministries, that too on foreign soil.
The Congress also criticised the minister for his remarks.