He has already offered a similar apology to the Lok Sabha Privileges Committee for his controversial comments reported by a website while speaking on the India-US civil nuclear deal.

“It was an act of indiscretion and it should not have been done,” he told the Upper House committee headed by Deputy Chairman K Rahman Khan and comprising Arun Jaitley, Ravi Shanker Prasad, S S Ahluwalia, Sitaram Yechury and Shantaram Naik, sources said.

As the committee members asked Sen how an experienced diplomat like him could make such a comment and also whether there was “more to it”, he explained that the term was a colloquial phrase that should not have been used.

The Ambassador is likely to be let off with a reprimand by both the committees following his explanation.
Sen is understood to have told that he had used the phrase during an informal conversation with the journalist. He said that the conversation was a private one.