Former prime minister Manmohan Singh on Monday ruled out the allegations levelled by the Bharatiya Janata Party that the previous government led by him had favoured industrialist Vijay Mallya in getting loans.
Singh said that the PMO during his days had received hundreds of representatives daily and that they were marked down to the officers concerned.
Asserting that he did not plug for any loans for Vijay Mallya or the now defunct Kingfisher Airlines, Singh said he had done what anyone in his place would have done.
"The letter(s) being talked about, is nothing else but an ordinary piece of letter which any government in my position would have dealt with. It was a routine transaction," he said.
Singh's cabinet colleague and former finance minister P. Chidambaram also rejected BJP's charges and said that the real questions to be asked were who let Mallya go out of the country, who made him a member of parliament, and who helped off shore deposits on behalf of Mallya.
Citing several letters written by Mallya to both Manmohan and Chidambaram, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra had alleged that the two had helped the industrialist get huge loans for bailing out the airlines.
"If a letter to PMO is marked down to the Principal Secretary which is then forwarded to the department concerned, it is normal," said Chidambaram.
He also sought to make a clear distinction between Kingfisher and United Spirits, which he said was a fine performing company.
(With inputs from agencies)
