By IANS,
New Delhi: In a new twist to the 2G tale, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Murli Manohar Joshi is alleged to have pushed the government auditor to speed up finalisation of the 2G report before it was tabled in parliament’s winter session last year.
Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh slammed both the government auditor and Joshi, alleging some links between the two. The BJP, however, refuted the allegations and said Singh’s comments will backfire on his party.
In an internal note dated July 13, 2010, R.B. Sinha, director general, report central (RC) in the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) office, has written that he got a call from Joshi, who heads parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
The note addressed to Deputy CAG Rekha Gupta states that Joshi cited “tremendous pressure on him from parliamentarians, media about the examination being done by the PAC in respect of ‘the recent developments in the telecom sector including allocation of 2G and 3G spectrum'”.
The note, a copy of which is with IANS, states that Joshi also asked Sinha to brief him and the PAC on the status of the report that was tabled in parliament last winter session.
The new twist comes on a day when CAG Vinod Rai deposed before the Joint Parliament Committee (JPC) Tuesday, a day after his former colleague contradicted the controversial 2G audit report saying the presumptive loss of Rs.1.76 lakh crore in the radiowave allocation was only a “mathematical guess”.
Rai, during his examination which lasted six hours, was asked about the differences of opinion within the CAG, after R.P. Singh, one of the key auditors in the 2G case, told the multi-party parliamentary probe panel that the loss suffered in the sale of scarce radiowave spectrum was only Rs.2,645 crore.
Rai told the panel members that during the various stages of spectrum allocation audit, the CAG had come across many projected loss figures and his figure of Rs.1.76 lakh crore was presumptive.
Reacting to the difference of opinion, Digvijay Singh tweeted: “Now R.P. Singh has stated he was forced to sign final report. He pegged losses at 2,645 Cr (crore) not 1.76 lakh Cr. Why is CAG doing this?”
He also wondered if the figures in the CAG’s report on the 2G scam were inflated and asked if the CAG had an “agenda” behind the report.
In his post on microblogging site Twitter, the Congress leader also alleged links between Rai and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), to which Joshi belongs.
“Does CAG have an agenda? Does he want to follow the footsteps of T.N. Chaturvedi, ex-CAG, of Bofors Report, BJP MP and Governor?” he asked.
Chaturvedi was the CAG under whom the report on Bofors scam came.
The BJP meanwhile refused to accept the figures given by Singh.
“During the earlier PAC meet, R.P. Singh had convinced the members that the loss in 2G spectrum was Rs.1.76 lakh crore. But when he went before the JPC (joint parliamentary committee), he said it was only Rs.2,600 crore,” BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said.
“How can we believe him,” he said, adding: “We will ask him when he comes to PAC.”
Reacting to Digvijay Singh’s comments, he said: “His (Digvijay Singh) comments will backfire on Congress,” Javadekar said.