Moments after a special CBI court acquitted all the accused, including former Union telecom minister A Raja and DMK leader Kanimozhi, of all charges in the 2G scam cases on Thursday, a war of words broke out between the main Opposition Congress and the ruling BJP, with the Congress claiming that the previous party-led UPA government was “vindicated” even as the BJP asked it not to treat this verdict as a “badge of honour”.
The Congress camp alleged that the BJP’s “propaganda and lies” and its “unrelenting targeting” of the party over 2G and corruption led to the ouster of its UPA government headed by the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
The Congress also gunned for the then CAG Vinod Rai, charging that his 2010 report estimating a “presumptive loss” of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the State exchequer had also helped the BJP in sealing the UPA’s fate in the 2014 elections.
The principal Opposition party demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, the BJP and Rai should apologise to the country and that “their accountability should be fixed” on the issue.
On being asked to comment on the special court’s verdict in 2G scam cases, ex-PM Singh told reporters, “I do not want to boast about anything. The court’s judgment has to be respected. I am glad that the court has pronounced unambiguously. All the massive propaganda which was being done against the UPA was without any basis.”
When asked whether it was vindication for his dispensation which has continued to draw fire over the 2G corruption scandal, Singh said, “The judgment speaks for itself.”
The then FM P Chidambaram said, “The allegation of a major scam involving the highest levels of government was never true…and that has been established today.”
The Congress’s chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala asked whether “those including PM Modi, Jaitley and other BJP leaders, who for years made false propaganda on this issue to come to power, apologise to the country now”.
Congress leader Kapil Sibal claimed “vindication” of his “zero loss theory” in the 2G case, saying “it has always been a scam of lies”.
The government and the BJP, however, remained unfazed, maintaining that the UPA regime’s “first come, first served” 2G spectrum allocation policy and its implementation was “arbitrary and corrupt” and that it was quashed by the Supreme Court in 2012 when it had scrapped the allocation of all 122 licences of 2G spectrum to various companies.
Hitting back, Jaitley said: “The Congress is treating 2G verdict as a badge of honour, but its zero loss theory was proved wrong when the Supreme Court quashed spectrum allocation in February 2012.”
Jaitley asserted that the “investigative agencies will have a closer look” at the trial court’s judgment acquitting all the accused, and “decide what has to be done”.
BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, who was one of the petitioners in the 2G case, said the government should immediately appeal in the Delhi High Court against the acquittal of the 2G accused.