By IANS,
New Delhi: Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, under fire for calling the home ministry “alarmist and paranoid” towards China, has been asked by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to stay on and advised not to speak out against other ministries.
The ruling Congress Thursday said the controversy kicked up by Ramesh’s =remarks in Beijing should be treated as “closed”.
The party, however, added that the final decision on the issue will be taken by Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
“Yes, the minister (Ramesh) had clarified his position to the PM (prime minister). He had also offered to quit. But the offer has been turned down for the moment,” a senior official in the Prime Minister’s Office said.
Truce was apparently reached after Ramesh called on Home Minister P. Chidambaram at his North Block office Wednesday and sought to clarify that his statements in Beijing last week were needlessly blown out of proportion.
Taking objection to his critical remarks against the home ministry, Manmohan Singh had Monday spoken to Ramesh and asked him to avoid commenting on functioning of other ministries in public, especially when it pertained to relationship with important neighbours like China.
Sources in the PMO pointed out that the prime minister told Ramesh that there should not be “any confusion” in India’s policies towards China.
The prime minister’s reprimand came amid strident demands by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that Ramesh should be made to resign for making such remarks, specially in a foreign country.
Even as speculation swirled about the fate of Ramesh, the Congress Thursday tried to downplay the controversy that brought forth the rivalries and personality clashes within the party.
“He has already given his explanation to the Prime Minister and 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.
The spokesman did not comment on reports that Ramesh had offered to resign in his talk with the prime minister.
A senior party leader, however, said informally that Ramesh had not offered to resign but had given explanation to the prime minister and the Congress president.
Attending a global meet on climate change in Beijing, Ramesh had said that the Indian security establishment’s policies toward Chinese companies were “alarmist” – a comment that prompted Chidambaram to write a strongly-worded note to the prime minister.
Ramesh had also said that there was danger that the Copenhagen spirit that marked India-China cooperation in the wake of a UN conference on climate change last year would end if New Delhi adopted “a needlessly restrictive, alarmist approach” towards Chinese investment in India’s infrastructure.
The home ministry had expressed reservations about allowing the import and installation of equipment from Chinese telecom giant Huawei and other companies on the grounds that they could pose a security challenge in the highly sensitive telecom sector.
At the same time, the home ministry had also said its policies were company-specific and not country-specific.