2G audit row: BJP hits back at Congress, DMK

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday hit back at the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government and its chairperson Sonia Gandhi over her remark that R P Singh's revelations have "exposed" the BJP.

The BJP alleged that Gandhi's statement and the demand for a discussion on the issue from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam have exposed the government's intentions.

Reacting to Gandhi's comment, BJP spokesperson Rajeev Pratap Rudy said, "Even if we ignore what he (R P Singh) is saying for a while, is it not a fact that A Raja was sent to jail and there is a charge-sheet filed against him, is it not a fact that the prime minister sacked him from his office despite being a minister from a strong alliance partner, is it not a fact that the Supreme Court stuck down the licences, is it not a fact the Chief Vigilance Commissioner found corruption in 2G-spectrum allocation, it is not a fact that the Central Bureau of Investigation has filed a charge-sheet in the matter."

"The entire opposition is talking about it. There is a Joint Parliamentary Committee working on it," said Rudy.

Indicating a conspiracy by the Congress and R P Singh to divert the people's attention from the corruption charges and the debate over Foreign Direct Investment in Retail, Rudy asked the former auditor why he did not speak out while he was in office.

"After all, he was a government employee, a senior officer, he had the protection of the President of India, he could have been a whistleblower. But he continued to do what he was supposed to do," said Rudy.

Earlier on Friday, senior BJP leader and PAC chairman Murli Manohar Joshi had also said that the ''hurried'' statement of Sonia Gandhi attacking the BJP has only "exposed" the Congress Party.

"Those who advised her to make the statement stand exposed. R P Singh had raised the issue earlier too. Why did she not speak out then," Joshi said.

On Friday, When a reporter asked Sonia Gandhi whether the BJP had been exposed by the former CAG official's comments, she said, "Yes, certainly I think so."

Giving a twist to the 2G allocation row, R P Singh has said that the report prepared by him contained no losses on account of 2G spectrum allocation and questioned the CAG's estimates of presumptive loss of Rs.1.76 lakh crore.

Singh claimed that he had estimated a loss of only Rs 2,645 crore and he had signed the report containing Rs 1.76 lakh crore loss on the orders of his superiors.