With the UPA Government facing one problem after another in the past few weeks, many ministers had to forego their foreign junkets. Tourism Minister Ambika Soni cancelled her trip to New York due to the Ram Sethu controversy. Science & Technology Minister Kapil Sibal had to cancel his trip to the US and Canada, thanks to the Left’s preoccupation with an exchange of notes with the Government. At the last meeting of the UPA-Left committee on Indo-US nuclear deal on September 19, the Left came out with yet another note. Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Sibal had prepared the Government’s response to the Left’s earlier note. As Chidambaram was abroad this time, the task of formulating the Centre’s answer fell on Sibal alone. With the next meeting scheduled on October 5, he had to cancel his foreign junkets, even though they had been cleared by the Prime Minister.
