No rift within the government, little truth in media reports: Ambika Soni

Union Minister Ambika Soni Thursday dismissed claims of a rift within the government following the controversy over Finance Ministry's "secret" note to the PMO which appeared to have raised questions on P Chidambaram's stand on 2G allocation when he was the Finance Minister.

"There is no rift in the government. There is very little truth in whatever is being reported (on the 2G scam)," the Minister of Information and Broadcasting said.

"There is nothing contentious, nothing new, nothing revealing in the letter that should excite anybody," she said.

Soni refused to go into details of the matter as it related to a case that was being heard by the Supreme Court.

She said Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Law Minister Salman Khurshid have already made the government stand clear on the issue.

Khurshid had said there could be "no question mark" on Home Minister Chidambaram's conduct.

"I have now seen the paper and I want to make it very clear that as far as we are concerned in the government, there is no question mark whatsoever...nothing of questionable nature on the conduct of P Chidambaram...I can say this with full authority. He deserves the support of the government," he told reporters here.

Asked to comment on the note produced in the Supreme Court yesterday, the Law Minister said it was "difficult to comment on the paper for the single reason that it comes from a junior official in the Ministry. It is not that paper has been seen either by a senior functionary or a minister."