New Delhi: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has stopped short of criticising Home Minister P Chidambaram for his statement that he had a "limited mandate" to fight Maoists, but believes differences in the Union cabinet "are not to be shared in public".
"I don't want to make any comment on what my distinguished colleague (Chidambaram) said. He is the best person to explain in what context he said," Mukherjee told CNN-IBN.
"I am saying that in what context what he said, he is in a better position to explain about it -- these things we do not share in public; these things are not to be shared in public. I am not the person to explain and air my views which are different from the decision taken in the cabinet."
In the interview Karan Thapar on Devil's Advocate show, Mukherjee said: "these are issues that we will have to discuss in the Cabinet. There cannot be a public debate because the fact of the matter is (that) the proposals of the Home Ministry have been adopted by the Cabinet and appropriate measures have already been taken.”
Mukherjee said he would "never" express his differences with anybody in public. "Whatever decision is taken in the Cabinet I may have a view -- I express my views in the Cabinet alone, or in the appropriate committee of the Cabinet, and, thereafter, I go by the decision.
"I am not the person to explain and air my views which are different from the decision taken in the Cabinet," he said.
The Minister was asked if Chidambaram’s “limited mandate” statement was fair. "I cannot sit on a value judgment on what he said and in what context he said, that's why I am repeatedly saying he is the best person to explain."
Mukherjee denied that top ministers of the country disagreed over how to tackle the Maoists. "I don't think there is any reason to be worried because I explained to you, and nobody in the Cabinet has stated that we should not take action against the terrorists and the Naxalites."
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