Cong says lies exposed; don’t gloat, warns BJP

NEWDELHI: It was the 2G case, but, for once, the boot was on the other foot. Soon after a special court acquitted all the accused in the so-called 2G scam, the Congress fielded its top guns to attack the Bharatiya Janata Party for its “massive propaganda” and “lies” on the issue.

The BJP, though, which has successfully used the scam to portray the Congress as a corrupt party, refused to be cowed and said the latter should not treat the verdict as a “badge of honour”.

The Congress demanded an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and finance minister Arun Jaitley.

The Congress Working Committee will meet on Friday to deliberate over the party’s strategy after the special CBI court ruling.

This will be the first CWC meeting chaired by Rahul Gandhi as Congress president.

The scam sullied the image of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government and contributed, in part, to its eventual downfall in 2014.

Leading the party’s charge, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the judgment needs to be respected and that it has “pronounced that the massive propaganda” unleashed against his government was without any foundation.

“I do not want to boast (about) anything… the verdict speaks for itself,” he added.

Jaitley, who had spearheaded the BJP’s campaign inside Parliament on the matter, said the “zero loss theory” of the Congress was demolished when the Supreme Court in February 2012 quashed the spectrum allocation done under the previous UPA government.

“The Congress is treating 2G verdict as a badge of honour,” he told reporters.

Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said the truth has prevailed. “It has been proved now that the BJP speaks lies and propaganda to win elections,” he alleged.

Former telecom minister Kapil Sibal, whose zero-loss remarks on the 2G spectrum allocation had drawn flak, said the UPA stood vindicated by the court verdict.

“Today, my words have been proved right. There was no corruption, there was no loss. If there was any scam, it was a scam of lies, the opposition’s and Vinod Rai’s lies. Vinod Rai must apologise”

The then Comptoller and Auditor General Vinod Rai had estimated a notional loss of ₹1.76 lakh crore to the exchequer in the 2G spectrum allocation in 2008. After the verdict, senior Congress leader Veerappa Moily raised the issue in the Lok Sabha, demanding that Rai should quit all posts. Rai heads the Supreme Court-appointed four-member panel of administrators running the affairs of the BCCI and is also the Chairman of the Banks Board Bureau. Former finance minister P Chidambaram said, “One thing is clear... the allegation of a major scam involving the highest levels of government was never true and not correct and that has been established today.” The acquittal has given the Congress an opportunity to project itself as a victim of political propaganda.