BJP trashes ex-CAG official's claim on 2G

The BJP Friday alleged that former CAG official R.P. Singh was a "pawn in the hands of the Congress party and government" in the wake of his claim that he was forced to sign the controversial report on the 2G spectrum allocation.

In a report, the Indian Express quoted Singh, former director general, Post and Telecommunications at Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), as hinting that BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi, who heads Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC), may have influenced the 2G report that had pegged the presumptive loss to the exchequer at Rs.1.76 lakh crore.

Singh told the daily that CAG officials visited the residence of Joshi on a holiday to help him prepare the panel's report on the 2G spectrum allocation.

Reacting to Singh's statement, Joshi told reporters it was a bid to defame the CAG. 

"It is the last attempt by the government to cover up corruption in which it is steeped in right till its neck," Joshi told reporters outside Parliament House Friday. 

"Why didn't R.P. Singh take up this matter while he was in the CAG? After retirement he is making such claims. It is a campaign to malign the CAG and the PAC," said Joshi. 

He added that Singh was called by the PAC to give his statement and he never once said that he had been forced to sign the report.

To the Congress's demand for a probe in the matter, Joshi said: "What investigation? Congress's demand for a probe is absurd." 

BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad asked why did Singh, who retired in September 2011, keep quiet for one year.

Prasad alleged Singh is a "pawn in the hands of the Congress party and government".

The opposition has attacked the government on the presumptive loss on 2G spectrum allocation.