The senior BJP leader's admission comes after an article in the Sunday's issue of Sena mouthpiece Saamna, in which Sena MP, Sanjay Nirupam, had directly blamed Pramod Mahajan for Tatas' decision to withdraw from their multicrore aviation project.

Nirupam accused that Mahajan twisted the new civil aviation policy to keep out the Tatas and protect the interest of Jet Airways. Incidentally, Mahajan's son is a pilot with the Jet Airways.

Talking to ENS, an anguished Mahajan said, ``Despite provocations, I have been trying to restrain myself, but I must admit that for one or the other, the relations between the alliance partners have become sour. However, this will not cause any threat to the alliance government.''

Commenting on the growing differencesbetween the Shiv Sena and BJP over minor issues, Mahajan said as one of the architects of the alliance, he has remained impartial and balanced ever since the formation of the alliance government in March 1995.

``The entire article authored by Sanjay Nirupam is based on false and incorrect information. The article states that when I was member of the Lok Sabha, I spoke against the Tata-Singapore airlines project. Official records of the Lok Sabha will confirm that I never spoke on the controversial project or on the Civil Aviation department. It is true that after I became the member of the Rajya Sabha, I briefly spoke on the Civil Aviation department, because my name was being mentioned by several members in one or the other context,'' Mahajan pointed out.

Nirupam's article submitted that the opponents of Tata-Singapore airlines have three main objections - that the project will create security problems for the nation, compromise the Indian Airlines' business prospects and will also adversely affect morethan 25,000 employees of the Indian Airlines.

Unfortunately, these persons, including Pramod Mahajan never considered these objections while promoting the Jet Airways, which is also in collaboration with leading foreign aviation companies, Nirupam had charged.

In fact, even the Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray had expressed his displeasure over the grounding of the project. When Mahajan's attention was drawn to the this fact, he said it was Thackeray's personal opinion.

``Apparently, addressing the Indian Merchants' Chamber, Thackeray criticised the Centre for the inept handling of the Tata-Singapore airlines project. I feel that it was his personal opinion and he is free to express it,'' Mahajan added.

Elaborating on the row over the Tata-Singapore airlines project, Mahajan said the issue of participation of foreign players or their collaboration with Indian companies was looked into by the Consultative Committee of the Parliament on Civil Aviation.

The committee, after considering pros and cons, hadrecommended that in the larger interest of the nation, foreign investment should be disallowed in the civil aviation sector. ``When the committee made the recommendation, which was accepted by the government, it did not either support or oppose any of the Indian companies seeking foreign collaboration. Even personally, I never opposed or supported any company,'' Mahajan sought to clarify.

The view of the standing committee was that foreign investment should be allowed only in the areas of high technology. Since investment in civil aviation sector does not bring in foreign technology required for the country, the committee unanimously opposed to the concept of foreign investment in the civil aviation sector, he elaborated.

Mahajan said though he is being charged with protecting the interests of Jet Airways, in fact the company was the main loser owing to the policy decision taken by the Centre. ``Since it was decided to keep out foreign companies from the civil aviation sector, Jet Airways had todissociate itself from Gulf and Kuwait airlines with immediate effect,'' Mahajan informed.

Mahajan said his political opponents might have strong objections to his son working with the Jet Airways. ``He is one among the more than 100 pilots with company. He is prepared to take up an assignment with the Indian Airlines, but as per official records, the Indian Airlines has not recruited any fresh pilot during the recent times. Under the circumstances, when my son is a professionally qualified for the purpose, how he can sit idle,'' Mahajan asked.