Following former CAG Vinod Rai’s revelations, the BJP on Friday attacked Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, saying the former Prime Minister acted under pressure with “real power” vesting in 10, Janpath (Congress president’s residence). For its part, the Congress trained its guns on the ex-CAG accusing it of trying to gain publicity.
Highlighting the allegations of Rai that Manmohan Singh knew of the spectrum scam, the BJP held the former PM and the Congress responsible for 2G, Coal, Air India, CWG and jijaji scams but maintained that “law would take its course” in these cases and the Government would not interfere with CBI investigations.
Addressing a press conference, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said in some cases the Prime Minister has given “his consent “by signing documents and in others offered his green signal verbally. While the ex-PM must answer, the Congress cannot escape its responsibility,” he said.
On 2G scam, Javadekar said the tainted former Telecom Minister A Raja wrote letters to Singh but the latter “gave template responses and always said ‘yes’ and never a ‘no’.”
The Minster said even though three senior Ministers in the UPA Government (including the incumbent President Pranab Mukherjee ) suggested a Group of Ministers (GOM) to examine the issues, the then Prime Minister did not accept it.Javadekar said Singh’s file notings on 2G were different from the statement he delivered before the Parliament.
He said like in 2G, Singh and the Congress allowed irregularities to take place in Coal, Air India , CWG and what is called ‘Jijaji” scams referring to the corruption charges against Robert Vadara (brother-in-law of Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi) for allegedly making huge profit by purchasing and selling land from and to real estate major DlF.
The Minister rubbished the Congress’ demand for conducting a Narco test on the former CAG saying the opposition party has to answer whether Rai’s phone was tapped and he was pressurized not to “involve” Singh in his findings. “Congress can take legal action if it wants,” he said.
The Congress, for its part, chose to attack Rai asking him why he did not file an FIR if some pressure was brought upon him not to name the then Prime Minister in the 2G and coal block allocation reports.Alleging political motive behind his remarks, party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said that these are nothing but “rejected allegations primarily made by Subramanian Swamy”, which did not stand the scrutiny of the Supreme Court and the special CBI court.
Suggesting that the former chief auditor was in league with the BJP, he also wondered as to why he has not uttered a word on serious strictures passed by the CAG in Gujarat against the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
While he accused Rai of showing “unsatiated hunger for publicity” before the launch of his new book, former party MPs Sanjay Nirupam and Sandeep Dikshit, who were accused by Rai of putting pressure on him, demanded an apology from him and threatened to drag him to the court.