Mukherjee says will comment on 2G issue only in India

Washington, Sep 24: Amid the raging controversy back home over the 2G spectrum auction issue, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said he will speak on it only when he reaches India on Monday.

"I told you that my question is only addressed to that (2G). What is to be told there, I will tell it there (in India), not now," Mukherjee told a group of Indian journalists in Washington.

He is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New York on Sunday before he leaves for India later in the evening. Singh is in New York to attend the 66th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

Even though Mukherjee's departure from Washington has been preponed by a day to accommodate for his unscheduled meeting with the Prime Minister, officials said the finance minister would fulfill all his engagements in Washington.

Instead of Sunday afternoon, he would now leave Washington for New York on Saturday evening after attending the reception of the State Bank of India, they said. He is expected to fly to New York and stay in the same hotel as that of the Prime Minister.

PTI