Sonia Gandhis tongue lashing to Ambika on phone!

Union Tourism Minister Ambika Soni has confirmed that while she was on an official visit to Tokyo, Congress President Sonia Gandhi telephoned her and gave her a tongue lashing over her ministrys affidavit filed in connection with the ongoing Sethusamudram project.

New Delhi, Sept 15 : Union Tourism Minister Ambika Soni has confirmed that while she was on an official visit to Tokyo, Congress President Sonia Gandhi telephoned her and gave her a tongue lashing over her ministry's affidavit filed in connection with the ongoing Sethusamudram project.

In Ambika's own words: "The CP called me in Tokyo. She was agitated as to how such an erroneous affidavit could go. I tried to explain to her and promised her to submit all the concerned papers about the controversy."

Ambika arrived here last evening from Tokyo amid the raging controversy over the "Ram-affidavit".

"Today, when I met her (Sonia Gandhi) at 10 Janpath, I handed over all the papers concerning the affidavit. I showed her the draft affidavit in which I and my officials had made three corrections. While two corrections were incorporated in the draft affidavit, one which we had expressly deleted, went uncorrected," Soni said.

She, however, said that she had carried out the corrections in the affidavit on September 7.

Replying to a question as to how such a mistake went through even after being corrected, she said, "I just can't say at what level such a mistake was committed."

Ambika met Sonia in afternoon and is understood to have briefed her about the inquiry into the matter. She had a brief ten-minute meeting with the Congress President and did not talk to the waiting mediapersons at 10 Janpath.

Meanwhile, after having ordered suspension of two senior officials of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) on Friday, the Culture Ministry has sought a personal explanation from the Director General of ASI, Anshu Vaish, to explain her role in the filing of the affidavit, official sources said.

Vaish has been asked to give her reply to Culture Secretary Badal K Das by Tuesday.

The two senior ASI officials - Chandrashekhar, Director (Administration) and V Bakshi, Assistant Director (Monuments) - were found to be responsible for not carrying out the corrections in the affidavit as directed by the Culture Ministry. By Pankaj Yadav

ANI