New Delhi:
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is back in the Capital after his two-nation tour and is expected to meet minister-in-trouble Shashi Tharoor along with Congress president Sonia Gandhi today.
On board his special aircraft, before landing in Delhi, the PM was non-commital on the Tharoor controversy, just willing to say: "In politics, ups and downs keep happening."
Singh's Minister of State for External Affairs Tharoor is facing allegations of having misused office to get sweat equity valued at Rs 70 crore for his friend Sunanda Pushkar in the Kochi IPL franchise.
Tharoor's fate has hung in balance ever since the controversy broke with a tweet from IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi, as everyone waited for the Prime Minister to return. While the Congress made clear that any decision on action against Tharoor would come only after the PM was back, an attacking Opposition too refused to accept an explanation from Tharoor, demanding one from the PM once he returned.
Manmohan Singh was away on a two-nation tour of the US and Brazil during which he attended the Nuclear Security Summit and IBSA and BRIC meets, besides holding talks with President Barack Obama and other world leaders.
With the ash cloud from Iceland's erupting volcano creating havoc for flights in northern Europe, Singh's special aircraft took a detour on the way back from Brasilia and had a stopover in Johannesburg in South Africa, instead of Frankfurt.
During his first leg of the eight-day tour, the Prime Minister was in the US where he attended the Nuclear Security Summit and met Obama and asked him to press Pakistan to rein in LeT and other terror outfits targeting India.
Singh, who held a 50-minute meeting with Obama on Sunday last, emphasised that Pakistan needed to take "convincing action" against those responsible for Mumbai attacks.
He also secured an assurance from Obama for India to get access to Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, who has confessed to plotting the Mumbai attacks.
At the Summit, Singh warned of dangers posed by nuclear explosives falling into the hands of non-state actors.
With Pakistan obviously on his mind, he pitched for "zero tolerance" against individuals and groups which engage in illegal trafficking of atomic explosives and announced at the summit India's decision to set up a 'Global Centre for Nuclear Energy Partnership'.
After his four-day US visit, Singh visited Brasilia to attend the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) and Brazil-Russia-India-China (BRIC) Summits.
Besides attending IBSA and BRIC summits, he held bilateral meetings with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev and discussed various issues with them. (With PTI inputs)