New Delhi, July 8 (IANS) With a cabinet reshuffle round the corner, the external affairs ministry Friday rejected reports that an aide to S.M. Krishna was manipulating lucrative contracts and influencing diplomatic postings.

In its July 4-11 edition, Outlook magazine had published an article that portrayed Raghavendra Shastry, advisor to the external affairs minister with the rank of additonal secretary, as an "extra-constitutional authority" and said that he "sits in on meetings and is privy to sensitive information, lacks diplomatic training, interferes in MEA's functioning." 

Responding to the article, Vishnu Prakash, the spokesperson of the external affairs ministry, has written a letter to the editor of Outlook, dismissing "sweeping and unsubstantiated allegations that seek to tar the reputation of the individual concerned." The letter has been published in the latest edition of Outlook that hit the newsstand Friday. The spokesperson's response has also been posted on the website of the external affairs ministry. 

Calling the article "motivated, one sided, judgmental," the spokesperson said it "casts serious aspersions on Mr. Shastry, on the basis of hearsay."

"To defame the character of any individual, you will appreciate, in such a pre-emptive and one-sided manner, goes against the grain of justice fairly delivered. It is also out of sync with the character of our democracy," he said. 

The spokesperson asserted that it "is the prerogative of a Union Minister to have an Advisor/Staff Officer, of his choice." 

"Mr. Shastry is not the first private individual to serve as an Advisor to a senior Cabinet Minister. He has never sought to hide his background as an entrepreneur or claimed to be a diplomat. His position is not illegitimate. The bias in the article is self-evident." 

Shastry was brought in by Krishna as his advisor since he became minister in May, 2009. He has been a political aide to Krishna in his earlier stints as governor of Maharashtra and chief minister of Karnataka. 

The spokesperson also rejected the allegation that the transfer of T.S. Tirumurti, who was joint secretary in charge of Bangladesh-Sri LankaMyanmar-Maldives in the ministry to the UN division, was done in bad faith as he allegedly, according to the article, manipulated the award of line of credits relating to a housing project in Sri Lanka. 

"The ministry categorically rejects this allegation. To suggest a miscarriage of justice is not called for, by any stretch of the imagination, including the learned author's," he said. 

The ministry's response came a week after the article was published. The rebuttal comes on the eve of a cabinet reshuffle in which it is speculated by some that Krishna may be replaced.