Once bitten twice shy, Ramesh avoids media

"I will not take any question on China. Don't waste your time here. You can go if you want. This meeting is on green house emissions, not on China."

This was the reply from Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh to the scribes at a function who had come in droves in anticipation of his reaction on the controversial remarks on China.

"No China at all, don't waste your time here," said sulking Ramesh, a day after he was reprimanded by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his controversial comments against Home Ministry in China.

A visibly irritated Ramesh lost his cool while addressing a press conference here to release a report on country's green house gas emissions and asked the mediapersons to leave if they wanted him to comment on the China issue.

Even as the adamant reporters continue to hound him even after the function during the lunch, the Minister remained mum, declining to comment on his controversial remarks in Beijing criticising the Indian government's policy towards Chinese companies.

Last Saturday, the Minister in Beijing had said the Home Ministry was "overly defensive" and "alarmist" in its approach towards entry of Chinese companies in India.

Ramesh, while talking about the India-China warmth developed during the Copenhagen Summit on Climate Change, had suggested that the Home Ministry needed to be "much more relaxed" in its approach to Chinese investments in India.

Back home, Ramesh drew flak from both the ruling as well Opposition parties so much so that the Prime Minister pulled him up, making it clear that he cannot comment on the functioning of other ministries, that too on foreign soil.

The Congress also criticised him while the main Opposition BJP demanded his sacking.