CAG report not an indictment: Moily

Law Minister M Veerappa Moily today virtually came out in defence of embattled Telecom Minister A Raja by saying the report of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on 2G spectrum allocation cannot be termed as an indictment as claimed by the opposition.

"You cannot call it an indictment. It is not a final report. Technically, no one can call it indictment," Moily told PTI here, adding he does not remember any minister stepping down following a CAG report.

But at the same time, he hastened to add that the CAG report has "weightage" as it is a constitutional body.

The CAG report is actually a query raised by the institution on a particular ministry, the minister said.

"CAG is an important institution to safeguard the interests of the exchequer. There is a process involved under which queries are raised by the CAG following which the opinion of the particular ministry or department is obtained. Then, the report is presented to Parliament and becomes its property," he said.

Moily said then the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) selects a particular paragraph in the report for discussion and then it becomes the right of a particular ministry to give a reply to the PAC.

To a question on the opposition parties' attack against the Telecom Minister, he said "in a healthy democracy, you cannot find fault with the opposition. But this not mean that a particular ministry is actually wrong".

He said the CAG had raised similar 'queries' when late Pramod Mahajan was the Communications Minister in the NDA government.

"NDA did not volunteer to make him resign.... I have no memory of a minister who has resigned following a CAG report," Moily said.