CAG becomes a shuttle for Congress leaders

Congress is hell bent to prove it was never in wrong and the anticipated loss of Rs 1.70 lakh crore was nothing more than a figment of imagination. Government representatives ranging from Manish Tiwary to V Narayanasamy are almost euphoric and using a tone and language against the CAG not suitable to a constitutional institution.

It has led BJP to say that Congress sounds “happy” at being not able to collect as much fund from the sale as expected. It is a matter of loss not a subject to gloat about, it points out.

But the BJP also offers some logic behind the poor response. “Once we destroy a system, break the market, response is bound to dwindle”, informed Yashwant Sinha, former Union Finance Minister. 

Another BJP leader said that year 2012 is the year 2008. Times have moved on. We have achieved some sort of saturation of mobile market. Also, the growth of telephone has gone down in UPA rule leading to lesser zeal among operators.

But keeping up the government's attack on the CAG, Union Minister V Narayanasamy said the top auditor owed an explanation on its estimated loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore in 2G spectrum allocation in the previous auction.
   
"We have said that the calculation of CAG was wrong. Now it has been proved with the auction. The CAG should explain (it)," the Minister of State in PMO told reporters at the Chennai airport.
   
Narayanasamy joined other Congress leaders in questioning the Comptroller and Auditor General for the estimated loss, in the wake of the current auction which yielded a mere Rs 9,407 crore, barely a fourth of the amount that was expected.
   
I&B Minister Manish Tiwari had hit out at the CAG saying, "Mr CAG where is the Rs 1.76 lakh crore? It is time for some serious introspection. Its time the CAG introspects on his processes and it is high time that the BJP and some of the other opposition parties, which had made this their holy grail and swan song of politics over the last two years, should publicly apologise."

Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh too had suggested that the "CAG should reconsider how far its estimate was right with regard to the report which it had earlier given and the losses it had computed."