New Delhi: Law Minister M Veerappa Moily
Friday said the report of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG)
on 2G spectrum allocation cannot be called an indictment of
Telecom Minister A Raja, as claimed by opposition, as it is
not final.
"You cannot call it an indictment. It is not a final
report. Technically no one can call it indictment," Moily told
PTI here, adding he had not seen any minister resigning
following a CAG report.
But at the same time, he hastened to add that the CAG
report has "weightage" as it is by a constitutional body.
The CAG report is actually a query raised by the
institution on a particular ministry, the minister stressed.
"CAG is an important institution to safeguard the
interests of the exchequer. There is a process involved under
which queries are raised by the CAG following which the
opinion of the particular ministry or department is obtained.
Then the report is presented to Parliament and becomes its
property," he said.
Moily said then the Public Accounts Committee (PAC)
selects a particular paragraph in the report for discussion
and then it becomes the right of a particular ministry to give
a reply to the PAC.
To a question on Opposition onslaught on the Telecom
Minister, he said "in a healthy democracy you cannot find
fault with the opposition. But this not mean that a particular
ministry is actually wrong".
He said the CAG had raised similar queries when late
Pramod Mahajan was the Communications Minister in the NDA
government.
"NDA did not volunteer to make him resign.... I have no
memory of a minister who has resigned following a CAG report,"
Moily said.
PTI
