Patil was misquoted on infiltration: ministry

The Union home ministry on Wednesday issued a clarification on behalf of Home Minister Shivraj Patil that the media had misquoted the minister.

The ministry said the news agency that had based its story on an interview granted to a television channel while he was on two-day tour of Jammu and Kashmir had misquoted the minister.

On July 1, 2007, on the eve of two-day talks between India and Pakistan's home secretaries, Patil while touring Gulmarg had said that it was wrong to blame Pakistan for every small incident.

He was answering a question in regard to infiltration and level of violence in the state of Jammu and Kashmir in last few months.

The statement put the government in an embarrassing position as it was to bring up the issue during the talks.

"We welcome the correction of minister's statement. We have been proved right," Prakash Javadekar said.

The clarification was issued by media director Omkar Kedia on behalf of Patil.

But he would not specify what the minister had actually said.

"We are getting the tape from the concerned channel and then we would go through the footage and find out what went wrong," he said.