Arjun-Pawar spat in Cabinet meet

Senior Union ministers Arjun Singh and Sharad Pawar got into a spat at a Cabinet meeting when the Mumbai blasts were being discussed, with the agricultural minister accusing Arjun Singh of 'trivialising' the issue of terrorism.

According to reports, Arjun had interrupted a presentation on the Mumbai and Srinagar blasts being made by Home Minister Shivraj Patil to the Union Cabinet quoting a Maharashtra high court judge saying that the attack on the RSS headquarters in Nagpur earlier was the handiwork of "Hindu organisations" to sensationalise the issue of terrorism.

Patil replied to Singh saying that LeT modules had been arrested in the RSS case.

Pawar also pitched in. He demanded that Arjun refrain from quoting the judge, who was not the last word on terrorism.

Despite the put-down, Minority Affairs Minister A R Antulay added that a similar blast in Nanded was also wrongly attributed to Islamist organisations.

In both cases, the PM put his foot down with the ministers. "He asked Arjun not to interrupt the presentation, saying that he did not want any cross talk while the home minister was speaking," said a senior minister in the government.