The Comptroller and Auditor General is an important constitutional functionary. His — all incumbents so far have been male — job is to let citizens know whether tax-payer’s money is being spent as per legislative intentions or whether funds are squandered fraudulently or otherwise. On the basis of a ‘draft’ CAG report, there is a rising chorus of demands that the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme be scrapped.

Let’s have some perspective here. Why is there no CAG report on petroleum subsidies which are destroying public sector Navaratnas? After all, is Parliament not responsible for the financial health of PSUs? Given that our oil majors are listed, there is a serious case for a SEBI investigation as to whether the majority shareholder (the Government of India) is violating the rights and impoverishing the wealth of minority shareholders by holding on to prices that are destroying the viability of these companies. Is there a CAG report on how politically connected petrol dealers conspire to murder honest oil company executives who try to prevent adulteration and theft of petrol? The magnitude of the petrol/diesel/LPG subsidy (all appropriated by middle and upper classes) dwarfs the attempted payments to India ‘s poor.