New Delhi, May 20
Outgoing Lok Sabha (LS) Speaker Somnath Chatterjee today took strong exception to Samajwadi Party general-secretary Amar Singh’s remarks that the former had asked his party to support the government on the N-deal issue.

In a statement issued by the Lok Sabha secretariat late this evening, Chatterjee said he was extremely surprised to learn of what Singh had said on the issue. “I am constrained to say that the statement of my good friend is without any basis or foundation whatsoever. I have never made any observation at any point of time about the merits or otherwise of the N-deal and there was no occasion for me to offer any advice in this matter.”

The Speaker said he regretted his name had been dragged into a “needless controversy”. Singh, earlier during the day, said the LS Speaker had asked his party to stand with the Congress in the Parliament on the Indo-US nuclear deal issue.