External Affairs Ministry has said, the SAARC meeting of Interior Ministers held in Islamabad was not open for live coverage and therefore there was no question of blackout of Home Minister's speech. Responding to media queries regarding reported blackout of Rajnath Singh's address at the meeting, Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said, media accompanying the Home Minister was not in the conference room. <br/><br/>Mr Swarup said, there is no contradiction between the statement given by Mr Singh in Parliament today and External Affairs Ministry's position explained yesterday. <br/><br/>MEA had said, there was no blackout of Home Minister speech in Islamabad and reports in that regard were misleading. It had said , under the standard SAARC practice, only the opening statement by the host country is public and open and the rest of proceedings are in camera for a full and frank discussion. The spokesperson also dismissed the speculation of any communication gap between the MEA and the MHA. He said, there is full coordination between the two union ministries.
News On AIR | August 5, 2016 7:07 PM
MEA denies blackout of Rajnath's speech at SAARC meeting in Islamabad