Chennai/New Delhi: Attempts to undermine the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) would boomerang on the Congress and scams would not vanish if constitutional bodies like the CAG were painted black, a senior BJP leader said on Monday.
“Scams would not go away by painting CAG black. Such attempts would boomerang on the Congress,” former party president M. Venkaiah Naidu told reporters in Chennai.
Naidu said the government’s attempts to make the CAG a multi-member body was aimed at undermining the authority of the CAG’s office.
Naidu said the government and the Congress party were unable to digest the independence of the CAG, and thus sought to make it a multi-member body.
“Earlier, in the appointment of the CVC (chief vigilance commissioner) the government tried to appoint a person (P.J. Thomas) who was facing an inquiry,” Naidu said.
According to Naidu, the Congress always tried to weaken institutions whenever the government found itself in trouble.
He added that right from top to bottom, from the prime minister to party functionary, the Congress was trying to run down the CAG after its findings on the allocation of 2G telecom spectrum and coal blocks and in the Commonwealth Games.
Naidu declined to comment on Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader M.G. Vaidya’s observations that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was behind the campaign against BJP president Nitin Gadkari.
Meanwhile, BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters in New Delhi that the government’s attempt to make the CAG a multi-member body was merely an attempt to curb its power.
“The BJP will oppose the decision from parliament to road,” Prasad said.
Prasad also said that the BJP opposed the government’s proposal to privatise Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi.
“The UPA is one of the most corrupt governments. We know how CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) is being abused. The CVC (Chief Vigilance Commission) and the Election Commission remain in controversy because of the government,” Prasad said. (IANS)