I am no dissident, says Aiyar

New Delhi, July 3 (UNI) Union Minister for Panchayati Raj Raj Mani Shankar Aiyar today distanced himself from the Left parties stand against wheat imports and said that any impression to the contrary given by a news agency was unfair.

"I want to state that I never opposed wheat imports," Mr Aiyar said. "I am not against wheat imports. When you need such an essential requirement you do need to use your resources to import." Mr Aiyar called a press conference to clarify his position on the issue which he said was sought to have been misrepresented in a media report.

He said following that report a section of the media began painting him as a dissident in the UPA which was a clear distortion.

"I am not a dissident," he asserted.

He said for some reason a clarification he issued to the news agency concerned was ignored by newspapers.

Mr Aiyar said he had never stated that economic reforms could not go hand in hand with human face. "The two can go together." The Union Minister clarified that the point he had made was in connction with agrarian crisis to which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had drawn atention to when he visited Vidarbha.

UNI YS RP ND1740