UPA Maligning CAG To Cover Up Flaws: BJP

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday accused the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance of maligning the institution of Comptroller and General of India.

Addressing a press conference here at the state BJP office at Nampally, BJP senior leader M Venkaiah Naidu alleged that whenever it faces trouble, the Congress party tries to attack, undermine, denigrate, devalue, destabilize and defame institutions. He said that the party was attacking the CAG over its estimates of losses of Rs. 1.76 lakh crores in the 2G Spectrum issue.

Venkaiah Naidu said that Congress leaders did the same thing during the Emergency period when they had gone for supersession of judges of the Supreme Court, the highest judicial body in the country. When they could not digest the CAG report on Bofors, they had devalued CAG by attributing motives. In the matter of CVC appointment, they bungled and unilaterally appointed someone who was under inquiry, he alleged.

The BJP leader said that the Congress tried to weaken the authority of Chief Election Commissioner by making the Election Commission a multi-member body and to add their own yes-men. "Now they want to make the CAG a multi-member body to weaken it," he said. They have made Prasara Bharati partisan and converted Doordarshan into a Congress-Darshan, he said.

"The Congress’ notoriety with respect to misusing CBI for political ends and the institution of Governors to unsettle or defame all opposition governments is well known. The manner in which the Government has made the fresh appointment of Director, CBI ahead of tabling in Rajya Sabha of the recommendations of the Select Committee indicates that it wanted to pre-empt the Committee," Venkaiah Naidu alleged.

Venkaiah Naidu alleged that now, as the reports of CAG on 2G spectrum and coal block allocations were not palatable to government, the Congress leaders were resorting to "their old habit of defaming the institutions in a brazen and shameless manner." Fresh attempts are on to malign the CAG and to tar PAC by the dirty tricks department of the Congress and the government, he alleged.
The BJP leader said that instead of introspecting to rectify its mistake, the government is maligning the CAG. They have roped in a former CAG official, DG (Audit), who was signatory to the report, and to create doubts about the report. "Why he has chosen to be silent for the last 15 months? As per the information available, he did not record any disagreement on or dissent to the final CAG report. On the other hand, he was signatory to the multiple letters including the final report," he said.

Stating that it was the same official who presented the final report before the PAC, he said it was ridiculous on his part to say that he had no option other than signing the report as ordered by his superior. He contradicted the document to which he himself was a signatory at several places. He never put on record even the slightest hint of objection to the Rs 1.76 lakh core loss estimate. "It speaks about his motive. The Congress party has to explain. The Congress party has the track record of destroying the institutions. They must remember scams won’t vanish by painting CAG black," he said. (INN)