Ministers differ on sealing issue

A difference of opinion has developed between Foreign Minister and the UPA's main trouble shooter Pranab Mukherjee and Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil over how best to handle the sealing issue.

According to top sources in the government, the Union Cabinet's meeting today saw Mukherjee and Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal ranged on one side with Patil on the other.

Patil had been asked to brief the Cabinet about the sealing issue as he heads the Group of Ministers (GoM) on the issue.

Patil, in his briefing, said that the sealing was progressing apace and encapsulated what had been going on during the last three days.

When the question of what to do as a forward measure in the matter came up, both Sibal and Mukherjee were in favour of calling an all-party meeting on the issue and sharing some of the political blame. Mukherjee in fact said that the political fallout of this issue would be difficult to handle.

Patil, on his part, counselled patience saying that since the Supreme Court was rejecting all legislative interjections, he did not see what could be done to salvage the situation.

At this, Mukherjee came out against Patil and said that an all-party meeting and a promise to approach the Supreme Court again were some of the ways in which the situation could be salvaged.

At the briefing of the Cabinet meeting, Finance Minister P Chidambaram denied that any decision to hold an all-party meeting had been taken.

"The Home Minister Shivraj Patil briefed the Cabinet about the sealing issue as head of the GoM," was all he said on the matter.

Sources say that Sibal's stock has risen within the Congress party due to the way he has taken a lead in the matter, and now with Mukherjee agreeing with him, the issue of sealing is set to take yet another complicated twist.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court monitoring panel on sealing today gave permission to telecom regulator TRAI to operate from a building in south Delhi, which was sealed, for one more month.

The three-member panel directed the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to deseal the building opposite Bhikaji Cama Place from where the TRAI was operating, which was sealed on the first day of the court-ordered drive.

The direction came after senior TRAI officials met the panel members to request them to allow the regulator to function from the building for another month as some important telecom cases were going on, the sources said.