New Delhi: The Prime Minister's Office on Saturday clarified that Manmohan Singh will attend the South Asian Association For Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit in Bhutan as scheduled.
Earlier in the day some reports claimed that the Prime Minister will skip the meeting in Bhutan's capital Thimpu as the Government had been cornered by the Opposition on the phone tapping scandal, the IPL controversy and a host of other issues including rising prices of essential commodities.
Sources had claimed that Singh would instead depute External Affairs Minister SM Krishna to attend the SAARC meet, if the Finance Bill is not cleared by Parliament before his scheduled departure for the April 28-29 summit, which marks 25 years of the establishment of the SAARC.
The Finance Bill comes up in Parliament on Monday.
The Prime Minister is scheduled to have bilateral meetings with the leaders from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal and Bhutan.
But he is unlikely to meet his Pakistani counterpart Yusuf Raza Gilani as no such meeting has been scheduled even though Pakistan on Saturday claimed that the two leaders could meet the sidelines of the SAARC summit.
Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, addressing a press conference in New Delhi on Thursday, ruled out any meeting between the Indian and Pakistani leaders.
"As of now there is no such meeting," said Rao.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, too, is likely to cancel his visit to the USA, as he is the Prime Minister's key troubleshooter and the Opposition is expected to raise the phone-tapping issue and the IPL controversy in Parliament on Monday.
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