A clarification

The office of Finance Minister P Chidambaram has clarified that there was no question of his no-show at the Euromoney Conference meeting in New Delhi on Thursday because he did not accept the invitation from the organisers.

The clarification is in response to a piece published in Business Standard on Friday (PC's no-shows), which stated that the finance minister did not attend two of his scheduled public meetings in the last four days.

"If the organisers had stated that the finance minister shall address the conference, they were wrong and it is they who should tender an apology," a statement from Chidambaram's office said.

In its media invitation, e-mailed to Business Standard on October 22, Euromoney Conference had said that Chidambaram would inaugurate the conference.

But the programme details distributed at the venue of the conference on Thursday did not list Chidambaram as a speaker.

The finance minister had declined the invitation from Euromoney Conference by his letter dated August 3 due to his preoccupation.

"When the request was renewed, it was turned down by two e-mails dated October 21 and October 28," the finance minister's office clarified.

Explaining why Chidambaram could not attend the Ernst & Young awards ceremony on Monday, his office said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had called a meeting of the full Union council of ministers that evening, which ended only at 10.40 pm.

The finance minister was in constant touch with the organisers, who appreciated the circumstances under which he could not attend the awards function.