A day after former Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Vinod Rai tendered an apology to former Congress Lok Sabha member Sanjay Nirupam for making an incorrect allegation against him, the Congress on Friday accused the former of being ‘conspirator’ to destabilise the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government.
“We demand that Rai apologise to the entire nation in the same manner in which he unconditionally apologised to Nirupam,” Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera told reporters at a press conference.
He said the former CAG needs to issue an unconditional apology to the country as he owes one “for making a fool of everyone”.
Ex-CAG Vinod Rai apologises to Sanjay Nirupam over charges in 2G spectrum case
Call for punishment
Stating that the CAG’s reputation as a watchdog has been ‘tarnished,’ the Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Choudhury tweeted, “Vinod Rai the former CAG has proved himself as a stooge of BJP, who was entrusted upon playing a sinister design to tarnish the image of UPA govt by his quixotic, wilful and deliberate observations in the CAG paras. He should be punished for his dereliction of duty”.
On Thursday, Mr. Rai had tendered an unconditional apology to Mr. Nirupam in an affidavit filed in the Patiala House court for “wrongly mentioning” him as one of the MPs who had pressured him not to name former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the CAG report on 2G spectrum allocation.
The former CAG is said to have made those remarks against Mr Nirupam in media interviews in the run up to the launch of his book, Not Just an Account: The Diary of the Nation’s Conscience Keeper.
“Imagine a man who can lie to sell a book; what all can he do to push his own agenda and the agenda of his masters,” Mr. Khera said, adding the former CAG needs to issue an unconditional apology to the country as he owes one “for making a fool of everyone”.
Role of IAC
Claiming that Mr. Rai was also associated with the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement, Mr. Khera said while Anna Hazare, who led the IAC movement, has never uttered a word against the Narendra Modi government, others like Arvind Kejriwal (Delhi Chief Minister) and Kiran Bedi (former Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry) made political careers out of the IAC movement.
“This clearly shows how the then CAG Vinod Rai had, along with his buddies from the India against Corruption farce movement, orchestrated a criminal conspiracy to destabilise and bring down a constitutionally-elected government that was working for the welfare of the common people, especially the poor and the marginalised,” he said.
The Congress also pointed out that the CBI had given a clean chit to Dr. Singh in the 2G case and even the special CBI court had noted that the prosecution had failed to give any evidence.
