NEW DELHI: The Congress on Thursday launched a full-throated attack on the Modi regime accusing it of using concocted allegations to come to power, but the BJP lashed back saying it should not treat the 2G verdict as “a badge of honour” or as proof of the erstwhile UPA’s innocence.
As the Congress sought an apology from the Prime Minister and the BJP for the “concocted conspiracy” and the “fallacious web of allegations”, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley recalled that the Supreme Court had termed the UPA’s first-come-first-served spectrum allocation policy as arbitrary and corrupt.
Congress communications department head Randeep Surjewala said: “Concocted conspiracy of Shri Narendra Modi, Shri Arun Jaitley and the entire BJP stands exposed today with the 2G verdict by special CBI court. BJP maligned the country and Congress for years, making false allegations of corruption as their principle strategy to gain power.
“BJP, as also (former CAG) Shri Vinod Rai, created a ‘fallacious web of allegations of corruption’. The truth is, however, out in the open that BJP made a profession out of its conspiracy of lies and falsehoods to gain power at any cost. Will Modiji and BJP come forward to own up the sinister maligning machinations and apologise to the nation?”
Jaitley, however, said investigating agencies would study the case history and check out if the acquitted accused were actually free of corruption. “The Congress is treating 2G verdict as a badge of honour, but its zero loss theory was proven wrong when the Supreme Court quashed spectrum allocation in February 2012,” he said.
Former Union law minister Kapil Sibal, who was slammed by the BJP for saying there was zero loss in the 2G scam, said he, his party and his government stood vindicated. He claimed the BJP’s false propaganda had derailed the telecom sector.
In Parliament, Congress’s M Veerappa Moily and Trinamool Congress leader Saugata Roy demanded that former CAG Vinod Rai should apologise, quit all posts, return all awards and face a probe.