Indian PM accidentally issues a clean chit to Syrian President Bashar

Indian PM Manmohan Singh accidentally gave a clean chit to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad today. The clean chit was however withdrawn later, when the gaffe was discovered. A red-faced PMO also issued a clarification saying the intention was simply to remind Syria of its obligation to the UN and the global community and was not intended to be a clean chit.

The faux pax was committed at 10:00 am on Saturday by Pulok Chatterji, Principal Secretary in the Prime Ministers Office. In a statement purportedly issued by Chatterji on behalf of the Prime Minister. “The PM wants to point out that the procedure regarding the use of chemicals on civilians was a misrepresentation of facts and in tactic deviation from the existing procedure followed by the Syrian administration. Therefore the PM is not ready to yet believe in the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime. The whole episode is still unproven and we are willing to wait till an independent international body exonerates the Syrian administration and this is the official view of the PM,” Chatterji said. After reading out the statement, Chatterji vanished into thin air.

The opposition picked up the PMO statement and tried to tear into the PM. “Our PM seems to be stoned and wasted. He is speaking in a language only he can understand we really need to give this nation a new direction and only someone from our party can do that. Else we can always outsource our leadership to a third world country. We need to remove this nation from a leadership auto-pilot,” a BJP spokesperson said.

The clean chit made waves in Syria while PMO officials went into damage control mode. They initially clarified that no clean chit was issued and later asked Syria to return the clean chit at the earliest. Syria however said that clean chits issued couldn't be returned or traded and that it was keeping the clean chit causing further embarrassment to the PMO.

The gaffe has been attributed to an overworked clean chit wing of the PMO. Sources say that the wing has been off late issuing over 200 clean chits a day on an average causing employee burn out.