Sushma Swaraj slams Congress leaders for criticizing draft PAC report

Mangalore, Apr 30 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sushma Swaraj on Saturday slammed Congress leaders, including Navin Jindal and Saifuddin Soz, for criticizing the draft report of the parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that probed the multi-billion dollar 2G scam.

Addressing mediapersons in Mangalore, Swaraj said the CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) report is an example that shows that the Central government is trying to influence every thing that is working independently.

"Now there is an emerging trend that if the institution succumbs to the government pressure and they walk according to their orders, they let them to survive, but if an institution tries to be independent, they first try to bully them and then try to bulldoze their report. Similar thing happened with the CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) report," Swaraj said.

She also criticized Union Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal's for slamming the CAG report.

"Can he (Kapil Sibal) answer now that if there is a zero loss, why CBI has presented a 80,000 strong page charge-sheet in that case?" Swaraj asked.

PAC chairman Murli Manohar Joshi submitted a copy of the draft report to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar today.

The ruling Congress Party and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) had accused Joshi of having 'malafide intention' of destabilising the government, and demanded an explanation from him over the leakage of the draft report.

The PAC in its draft report has indicted former Telecom Minister A. Raja for misleading the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, in 2008.

According to the draft report, the PMO could have intervened faster in objections presented on Raja's 'First Come First Serve Policy'.

The draft report also says that Raja misled Dr. Singh to fulfill his 'nefarious designs' leading to a staggering loss of revenue.

The draft further adds that the Prime Minister was aware of the advice given by the Law Ministry, which was contrary to the view of the Telecom Ministry.he report is also critical of Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram, who was then Finance Minister.

According to the draft PAC report: "We are shocked and dismayed that instead of initiating stringent action against all those responsible for the loss, the Finance Minister in his note asked the Prime Minister to close the matter." (ANI)