By IANS,
New Delhi: The Congress Saturday spoke in defence of Communications Minister Kapil Sibal, who has criticised the report of the country’s top auditor into the 2G spectrum scam, but the party did not say it was officially backing the minister in his remarks.
Congress spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed said he did not think Sibal was undermining the authority of any constitutional body. “He as a minister has the relevant papers. If a wrong message has gone in the country with some report and he has documents to prove otherwise, he can express his views,” Ahmed said.
He, however, did not say if Sibal’s remark on the Comptroller amd Auditor General’s report was the party’s official line.
“There is no question of backing or distancing from Sibal. Sibal as telecom minister has the relevant papers. Only he can explain on what basis he has commented on the arithmetics of the report. How can the party say what is right or wrong in the report,” Ahmed said.
Asked if Sibal’s remarks suggest that there was no case against former communications and IT minister A. Raja, he said: “Sibal has relevant papers. Only he is in a position to comment on internal matters of the telecom ministry.”
Asked to comment on Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Public Accounts Committee chief Murli Manohar Joshi flaying Sibal’s remarks, Ahmed said that documents are either with the minister or with Joshi. “The party does not have any document. How can the party say what is factually correct and what is not.”
Ahmed refused to give a categorical answer on whether it was proper for a minister to publicly criticise the report of a constitutional body. But he said that that CAG report is being scrutinised.
“Any MP or minister can raise question mark on CAG report based on the latter’s findings. If Sibal has said something based on documents, we do not think it is wrong on his part.”
However, some party leaders said on the condition of anonymity that it was not good for a government functionary to attack a constitutional body publicly.
Sibal had Friday slammed the report of CAG and said the methodology used was “utterly erroneous” in pegging Rs.1.76 lakh crore as the loss for awarding airwaves for 2G phone services without an auction.
Sibal had also criticised the opposition for disrupting the entire winter session of parliament and spreading what he called “utter falsehood” on the matter. He said the BJP-led government had framed the policy and his government merely followed it.