By IANS,
New Delhi : With the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) pointing fingers at Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in its report on irregularities in the Commonwealth Games, the Congress is likely to face opposition heat in parliament next week with demands for Dikshit’s resignation getting shriller.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders said Friday that the content of the CAG report was a serious issue and they will raise it in parliament in the coming days.
“It is a serious issue. We are studying the report. We will raise it in coming days,” party leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told IANS.
He said the United Progressive Alliance government was “losing its moral authority day by day.”
“The government is at cross-roads. It had already lost confidence of the people and now there is lack of confidence within the government,” he said.
BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar sought Dikshit’s resignation after the CAG report was tabled in parliament Friday.
“I think now it is the moral duty of Dikshit that she must resign,” Javadekar said.
“If not, the Congress high command must ask her to step down immediately and they can elect their new chief minister,” he added.
However, Congress leaders came in defence of Dikshit, saying there was no need for her to resign.
“That (objections raised by CAG report) doesn’t automatically lead to kind of things that should require people to step down,” Law Minister Salman Khurshid said.
“We have to let parliament see what kind of report is being made, what reply if at all is there to the report; let parliament make up its mind,” he said.
Dikshit said her government will cooperate fully when the report comes before parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
For the Congress-led government, which has been buffeted by a series of scams, the CAG report has come at a time when it is gearing up to push its pending legislative agenda.
The BJP had made clear its intentions about gunning for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the start of the session over the 2G and CWG scams. With the CAG report laying blame on the PMO for appointment of Kalmadi as OC chief will provide fresh ammunition to attack the prime minister, its leaders said.
Naqvi said Congress had “told lies” by putting the onus of Kalmadi’s appointment as OC chief on the BJP-led NDA government.
Congress sources said the CAG indictment will not pose any immediate threat to Dikshit though her stock in the party is likely to be affected.
They said the findings of the Shunglu panel report and the CAG report has allowed the BJP to attack the Congress.
They said that PAC, headed by BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi is likely to do a close examination of CAG report and ask some tough questions of the state government.
Congress sources said Dikshit’s rivals in the party could begin to clamour for her replacement if more controversies surround her government in the future.