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Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, February 10
Amid the likelihood of the CAG report on Rafale deal being tabled in Parliament before the conclusion of the ongoing session, the Congress today levelled fresh allegations on the issue, this time attacking the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).
Moments after Congress MP and former minister Kapil Sibal alleged that CAG Rajiv Mehrishi was “ineligible” to conduct the Rafale audit due to conflict of interest since he was the Finance Secretary when the 36-jet deal was announced and also when the UPA’s previous 126-aircraft deal was cancelled, the Centre trashed the allegations as false.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in a counter-attack on the Congress, said, “After 10 years in the government, former UPA ministers still don’t know that the Finance Secretary is only a designation given to the senior-most secretary in the Finance Ministry…Defence ministry files are dealt with by the Secretary (Expenditure). The Secretary (Economic affairs) has no role in expenditure files of the Defence ministry… Another attack on the institution of CAG by the ‘institution wreckers’ based on falsehoods.”
“It is about time India and its institutions are protected from these institution wreckers. History will record that Pt Jawaharlal Nehru’s great grandson has singularly damaged India’s Parliament as an institution more than anyone else,” Jaitley said.
The Congress, meanwhile, submitted a memorandum to Mehrishi asking him to “recuse himself from the audit and publicly accept the gross impropriety in initiating the audit despite knowing about his conflict of interest”.
It is reliably learnt that CAG will submit the Rafale audit report to President Ram Nath Kovid tomorrow and that it was likely be tabled in House before the last session of the BJP-led NDA government concludes on February 13.
FS when pact inked
"Mehrishi was FS when deal for 36 Rafales was announced in 2015 and later when the NDA govt scrapped the UPA’s previous deal of 126 jets on June 26, 2016. He is ineligible to conduct the Rafale audit due to conflict of interest." — Kapil Sibal, former Law Minister
Saving institutions
"It is time India and its institutions are protected from these institution wreckers. History will record that Pt Jawaharlal Nehru’s great grandson has singularly damaged India’s Parliament as an institution more than anyone else." — Arun Jaitley, Union Minister
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