By IANS,
Hua Hin (Thailand) : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Sunday declined to join issues with Communications Minister A. Raja, who has been linked to wrongdoing in spectrum allocation.
“I don’t want to comment on cabinet matters or what happens in the cabinet or what happens between me and the ministers in public,” Manmohan Singh told a news conference here. “It is not proper for me to join issue with a cabinet colleague in public.”
The prime minister was asked to comment on Raja for dragging Manmohan Singh’s name into the controversy over the allotment of 2G spectrum licenses to private operators. The Congress party has already criticized Raja.
Initially, the prime minister even declined to answer a question on Raja, a member of the DMK who was first accused of corruption by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M).
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has since raided the department of telecommunications.
Asked if Raja should resign, Manmohan Singh first said: “Cabinet changes or cabinet reshuffled are not discussed in public. It would be very inappropriate for me to answer this question, more so on the foreign soil.”
But when journalists persisted, he declared he did not want to go public on the issue.