PM MANMOHAN SINGH ismisses Baru’s claims, "baseless and mischievous’"

New Delhi: The Prime Minister's Office today rubbished as "baseless and mischievous" the contention of former media adviser to PM Sanjaya Baru that PMO files were seen by Congress president Sonia Gandhi. "The statement being attributed to a former media adviser to the prime minister that PMO files were seen by the Congress President, Smt. Sonia Gandhi is completely baseless and mischievous. It is categorically denied that any PMO file has ever been shown to Smt. Sonia Gandhi," PMO spokesman Pankaj Pachauri said in a statement in New Delhi. Former media adviser Sanjaya Baru. Image courtesy CNN-IBN He was responding to the claims by Baru in his book Accidental Prime Minister – The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh and comments to media that the prime minister's principal secretary Pulok Chatterjee would seek "instructions" from Gandhi on important PMO decisions. Criticising Baru, the PMO statement said, "The book written by the former media adviser is an attempt to misuse a privileged position and access to high office to gain credibility and to apparently exploit it for commercial gain." Pachauri said, "The commentary smacks of fiction and coloured views of a former adviser." The statement reiterated that "the question about comments of the former media adviser was raised by senior editors when they met the Prime Minister in October last year. His answer was - "Do not believe all he is saying". The PMO statement came as opposition launched a scathing attack on Gandhi and the prime minister, citing the claims by Baru. In his book, Baru has written, "Pulok, who was inducted into the Manmohan Singh PMO at the behest of Sonia Gandhi, had regular, almost daily, meetings with Sonia at which he was said to brief her on the key policy issues of the day and seek her instructions on important files to be cleared by the PM. "Indeed, Pulok was the single most point of regular contact between PM and Sonia. He was also the PMO's main point of contact with the NAC, a high profile advisory body chaired by Sonia Gandhi, with social activists as members. It was sometimes dubbed the shadow cabinet." As the observations created a flutter, Baru said, "it was not a secret." He said it was well known that Chatterjee was Sonia Gandhi's secretary when she was the leader of opposition and had also worked with the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation chaired by her. "He was very much part of the family.... I was not witness to it, whether she physically saw the files. I knew she was consulted on issues and he was taking her concurrence," said Baru, who had resigned from the PMO in 2008 while Chatterjee joined it in 2011.

No harsh words against Seemandhra people: Sonia Gandhi

New Delhi:  Congress President Sonia Gandhi today told leaders from Telangana to reach out to people of Seemandhra and not to use harsh words against them.

Mrs Gandhi conveyed this to a delegation of union ministers, MPs and state ministers from Telangana which met her to express gratitude over parliament's approval to formation of a separate state.

Those who met Mrs Gandhi included union ministers Sarve Satyanarayana and Balram Naik, a dozen MPs from Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha including Ponnam Prabhakar and Madhu Yakshi Goud and state ministers from Telangana region.

Members of Telangana Joint Action Committee, chaired by M Kodandaram, also met Mrs Gandhi.

Talking to reporters after the meeting, Madhu Yakshi Goud said Mrs Gandhi told them that when Congress has done justice to the people of Telangana, party leaders from the region should ensure that no injustice is done to the people from Seemandhra region.

"She also asked us to reach out to people from Seemandhra and ensure that we do not use any harsh words against them as people from both regions have been living together for a long time," he said.

Replying to queries about possibilities of merger of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) with the Congress, Mr Satyanarayana said "we are expecting TRS to join us."

"K Chandrasekhar Rao (TRS Chief) has been saying that he would work with Congress President Sonia Gandhi if Telangana is created. Now the Bill has come and there is no reason for him to continue as a separate entity," he said.

Former AICC Secretary P Sudhakar Reddy, who was also part of the delegation, said "we conveyed our thanks to the Congress President."

"It was a dream for decades and now Telangana has become a reality. We have seen it as natural justice to Telangana. The Congress President has told us to maintain cordial relations with people from Seemandhra region," Mr Reddy said.

Telangana is all set to become 29th state of India with parliament yesterday approving the bill to carve it out of Andhra Pradesh.