Former CAG blows Manmohan Singh’s cover
Former Comptroller and Auditor-General of India Vinod Rai's revelations in his book, Not Just an Accountant, and in interviews to the media have confirmed what has been speculated and spoken about openly for long: That as Prime Minister, Mr Manmohan Singh had not just known of the 2G Spectrum licensing and the coal block allocation scams but also allowed them to take place. Various apologists for Mr Singh have been for months now spinning out explanations to defend him, but as Mr Rai has observed, the buck eventually stops with the Prime Minister. It is not difficult to understand why Mr Singh, who has enjoyed a reputation for personal honesty and impeccable character, allowed rackets to happen in his tenure. The pressure on him from allies whose people were involved in the scams was so great and the threat to his Government and his prime ministership if he did not look the other way so real that Mr Singh preferred to be a silent spectator to the murky dealings that not only destroyed his credibility but also led to severe roadblocks in the country's economic growth. Congress leaders have now resorted to the usual tactic of defaming the messenger rather than taking the message for what it is. One such leader, whom Mr Rai identified as among those who advised him to “keep the Prime Minister” out of the controversy, has rubbished the claim and called the former CAG a “liar”. The Congressman should know that people will not buy into the act of innocence that he and the likes of him are presenting. The person who should be speaking out is the former Prime Minister, though there is little that he can say in his defence. During one of those rare candid moments, he had admitted that “compulsions” of politics had led him to take certain decisions he may have been uncomfortable with. But political compulsions cannot serve as a justification for his having allowed scams to be engineered by his Ministers. By his silent acquiescence, Mr Singh became an accomplice of sorts.
Mr Rai's remark that Mr Singh could in no way “shirk his responsibility” in the coal block and 2G scams hits the bull's eye. The former Prime Minister was promptness personified when he needed to respond to then tainted Telecommunication Minister A Raja but dragged his feet when he had to get back to Mr Rai on disturbing issues which the latter raised. Mr Rai has revealed that he and then Union Minister for Finance Pranab Mukherjee had met Mr Singh and informed him of the looming rackets. Sadly, even that warning did not have a salutory effect on the then Prime Minister. It is evident from Mr Rai's outburst that he has all but lost respect for Mr Singh, although he has remarked that the then Prime Minister alone cannot be blamed for everything. In sarcastically saying that “if you become the head of Government, your training in Oxford or Cambridge has nothing to do with it”, the former CAG has taken a dig at those who believe that rarefied education puts one on a pedestal beyond questioning. But the Congress, and certainly Mr Singh, have become so immune to well-founded allegations of impropriety and failure to have governed honestly and effectively, that they will swallow the new humiliation with the bluster we have seen earlier. They have not even their reputations to lose.