Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia charged BJP lawmaker and leader of Opposition Vijendra Gupta of “breach of privilege” of the House on Friday for leaking to the media the CAG report on AAP Government’s spending on advertisements “before it was even tabled in the Assembly”.
Calling it contempt of the Delhi Assembly, Speaker Ram Niwas Goel referred the matter to the Privileges Committee of the House.
Sisodia said he received a Comptroller and Auditor General’s report on the special audit of the Delhi Government’s Advertisement Department on August 24 at 5.30 pm.
He said even before he received the report, it was leaked to the media.
“Vijendra Gupta, on August 24, had raised the issue of non-tabling of the CAG report in the House. Till then, we had not received the report. We got it only by 5.30 pm on the same day. But I was surprised that the report details were already leaked to the media before it came to me,” Sisodia said during a Calling Attention motion in the Assembly.
He added the access to the report was only with three people: the CAG, the lieutenant-Governor of Delhi and the Delhi Finance Secretary. “I trust the Finance Secretary as he gave me the report in a sealed envelope. Now, the question is: Who gave Vijendra Gupta that reportIJ Who leaked it to the mediaIJ This House and its members had the first right as it was supposed to be tabled in the House before it could be made public to anyone else. Then how did it reach Gupta and the mediaIJ” Sisodia asked.
“It is a breach of the House’s privileges. So, there should be action against Vijendra Gupta for leaking the CAG report. I demand this matter be referred to the Privileges Committee of the assembly,” Sisodia added.
Calling it a “very serious matter”, Speaker Goel asked Gupta if he issued a Press release with details of the report to the media. When Gupta refused to answer after being repeatedly asked, Goel referred it to the Privileges Committee calling it “contempt of the House”.
Gupta alleged the Assembly was not functioning as per the Constitution and that he was not being heard over the matter, and walked out of the House. Gupta had earlier also moved a breach of privileges motion against Sisodia demanding action against him while alleging that the Deputy Chief Minister had committed “contempt of the House” by making a false statement that the Government had not received the CAG report .
Meanwhile, claiming that the CAG report actually comes as redemption for the AAP Government as it clears that no overspending was done by his Government on advertisements, Sisodia said the report will be tabled in the House in the next session and there will also be a discussion on it.
“There has been no corruption in advertisements given by Delhi Government’s publicity department. The CAG report has not found even a single rupee scam in expenditure on ads by the Government….Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Amit Shah and other leaders who have been alleging a corruption of Rs 526 crore in Delhi Government’s advertisements should apologise as CAG report has not pointed to even a single scam in it,” he said.
A letter written by Sisodia to the CAG on July 14 was also tabled in the Assembly which he quoted while making his observations on the issue of the CAG report.
In the letter, Sisodia had written that similar audit should also be done on other State Governments as well as the Centre. He had further added that Constitutional bodies like CAG should “keep their head above the political surround sound and not get influenced by political agendas”.
He said CAG should conduct a comparative analysis of spending on advertisement by Delhi Government and that of other State Governments which will clear the air on the issue.
On August 24, Gupta walked out of the Assembly and issued a statement containing certain points of the CAG report.