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The Opposition Congress on Thursday condemned Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s speech that the Comptroller and Auditor General should not sensationalise audit reports.
Addressing the CAG conference on Wednesday, Jaitley had said that the CAG should not sensationalise its findings. The Minister said the CAG has to be an active auditor, but activism and restrain are always two sides of the same coin. “He (the CAG) does not have to sensationalise. He does not have to take into hypnotise. He has to scrutinise thoroughly the decision making process. He has to necessarily eliminate the process of any form of nepotism which may have been exercised,” Jaitley had said.
To this, the Congress said when in Opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party tried to sensationalise all reports of the CAG. Defending the Public Accounts Committee Chairman KV Thomas’s comments on the similar tone, Congress General Secretary Ajay Maken said the Congress Party has been saying that the CAG reports should not be sensationalised.
He said the BJP, on the contrary, has been sensationalising the CAG reports. “Now when they are in power, they are asking — rather threatening — the CAG not to sensationalise the CAG report,” Maken said. He said what Thomas has said is the constant stand of the Congress Party, but the BJP has taken a U-turn. “When it comes to the BJP, when they are in power, their views on different subjects are different. When they are in Opposition, it is totally different. So they are misleading and hoodwinking the country,” he said.
“Why U-turn?”Maken said there is a reason for the u-turn. “Why this sudden change of heart and U-turn? Is it because of the CAG report on Gujarat talks about irregularities worth ₹25,000 crore in land affairs when Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister? Now do Arun Jaitley and Modi feel that Opposition would use against them CAG reports, based on which they had stalled Parliament for long?” Maken asked.
Reacting to criticism, Jaitley said the news reports of his speech at the CAG conference did not “accurately reflect” the spirit of his speech.
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