At least someone in Cong has spoken the truth: Jaitley

Addressing a function here,Jaitley sought to rub it in by lavishing praise on Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee for having pointed out the discrepancies in the finance ministry note,saying that “at least someone in the Congress has spoken the truth”. He said the government had attacked anyone — judiciary,the opposition and the CAG — who spoke about irregularities in 2G spectrum allocation but “now the most experienced and wisest person in the government is saying so”.

The finance ministry note had brought out contradictions in the government,he said,which underlined the distrust that had set in. “A civil war like situation has emerged among senior ministers of the government. The Prime Minister and the UPA chairperson are mute spectators. The legitimacy of the government has been eroded,” he added.

He said the PM cannot shirk the responsibility on the plea that he had delegated the responsibility to two senior ministers. This especially,he said,when his own correspondence “with A Raja had revealed that he had a lurking suspicion that all was not well”.

The charge of inaction on the part of the PM was also levelled separately by Murli Manohar Joshi,who had looked into the CAG report on 2G spectrum sale as PAC chairperson. “It is most disgraceful that a finance minister (Chidambaram) has pushed the country into a scam….. The Prime Minister should also answer why he was so easily misled. Everything was in his knowledge,” Joshi said.

“The finance ministry officials were telling Chidambaram to go for auctions. Why was it not done?…. There are clear contradictions. I demand that either Chidambaram should resign or he should be dismissed forthwith,” he said.