Former CAG’s charges against Manmohan Singh spark controversy

The ruling BJP on Friday hit out at former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi for scams in the allotment of coal blocks, 2G, CWG, jeejaji (son-in-law, a reference to Priyanka Gandhi’s husband Robert Vadra) and Air India.

A day after former Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Vinod Rai made sensation disclosures on a television channel that coincided with the release of his book Not Just an Accountant: The Diary of the Nation’s Conscience Keeper , the BJP fielded its former spokesperson and Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javdekar to assert that the revelations confirm “everything that we had said about Manmohan Singh and 10 Janpath (Sonia Gandhi’s residence).”

The I&B Minister, however, shied away from spelling out what course of action the present Government is going to take in the wake of Rai’s allegations. “The law will take its own course. We are not the sort of dispensation that interferes with the functioning of independent investigating agencies,” Javdekar said.

In his book and the subsequent interviews, Rai has maintained that the former PM was fully conversant of the wrongdoings in the allotment of 2G Spectrum by his telecom minister A Raja. He has also alleged that his phone was being tapped and that three Congress leaders — former law minister Ashwini Kumar, Sanjay Nirupam and Sandeep Dikshit — tried to influence him and exhorted him not to include Manmohan Singh’s name in the scams.

The Congress, in the meantime, has maintained that Vinod Rai may need a “narco test” to verify his claims. The leaders who have been named have threatened to take Rai to court for defamation.

The former CAG’s revelations, however, seem to have decidedly strengthened the BJP’s charges against the former regime.

“The UPA’s 10 years of loot has been exposed. After what the CAG has said, Manmohan Singh cannot claim that he did not know anything with regard to corruption in the 2G scam. A Raja had kept him in the loop for every step taken in the allotment. Secondly, you can qualify the 2G scam as a case of ‘coalition corruption’ but what about the route rationalisation and purchase of aircrafts for Air India? What about coal allotment? What about jeejaji?” Javdekar asked.

But when asked whether the BJP will pursue allegations of corruption and land scams against Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law, Javdekar said: “We now know that the trail of corruption leads directly to 10 Janpath. But the cases are being investigated. The BJP is not going to try and influence the course of ongoing investigations,” he said.