Digvijaya says CAG Vinod Rai has ‘political ambitions’, slams Sushma and Gadkari

Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh on Thursday lashed out at Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Vinod Rai, accusing him of harbouring "political ambitions" like one of his predecessors, TN Chaturvedi.

Chaturvedi was the CAG in 1989 when the auditor published a report on the Bofors guns bought by Rajiv Gandhi's government. After his retirement, Chaturvedi joined the BJP and became an MP and governor of Karnataka.

"The way the CAG is going, it is clear he has political ambitions like TN Chaturvedi. He has been giving notional and fictional figures that have no relevance to facts. How has he computed these figures? He is talking through his hat," Singh told The Indian Express.

Singh's comments are the first by a senior Congress leader directly attacking the CAG, whose coal blocks allotment report has caused a political furore.

Rejecting the CAG's findings on the allotments, Singh dismissed the opposition's demand for cancellation of coal block licences. "Why should we justify them by cancelling them? It would appear that we have done something wrong. The decision had been taken after due deliberations and consciously," he said.

Singh also slammed Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj, for saying the Congress had got mota maal for the coal block allotments. "As far as mota maal is concerned, she has to explain what she received from the Reddy brothers," Singh said referring to the BJP leaders from Bellary. "It is also for (Nitin) Gadkari to explain what he got from Ajay Sancheti," he said, referring to a businessman friend of the BJP president.

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