Poison pen

The ructions caused by the finance ministry’s note on the 2G scam appear to have provoked much chagrin in Pranab Mukherjee’s office. Once the implications of the note, which cast doubts on P Chidambaram’s role in the controversy when he was finance minister, were dissected, the media suggested that this was Mukherjee’s way of taking a dig at the current home minister. The note was prepared by the department of economic affairs under Mukherjee. At a meeting soon after, an official told Mukherjee that he was acting like the Hindu god Shiv and swallowing the world’s poison while others (in this case Chidambaram) got away unscathed. “How long can you go on doing this?” the official reportedly asked Mukherjee.