Shrillness, non-application of mind and a belligerent rhetoric seem to be the strategy of the Congress party. - Arun Jaitley
Keeping up its offensive over the 'telecom scam', Congress today alleged that conduct of the Modi government and its ministers has "come under a cloud" in the wake of their "lame duck" reaction to the Rs 45,000 crore scandal in the sector. The party also raked up the Essar Tapes issue wondering as to what connection it has with the telecom scam and whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi would order an impartial judicial investigation in the case.
The BJP were never likely to take this lying down and Arun Jaitley replied with a blog post on Facebook:
An Empty Rhetoric by the Congress Party
The Congress party has run out of ideas. It has perfected the art of scoring self-goals. The latest example is the Press Conference that its Spokesperson held on 7th July 2016 alleging a telecom scam of Rs 46,000 crores.
Under the well-established policy of Government of India, telecom service providers pay to the Government of India license fee and spectrum user charges on a revenue sharing basis. A CAG Report of February 2016 has stated that the six telephone providers, between the period 2006-07 to 2009-10, have under reported their revenues to the extent of Rs 46,000 crores, thereby depleting the share of the Union Government in license fee and spectrum user charges by about Rs.5000 Crores. The CAG Report was received by the Telecom Department in February this year and its supporting documents were received in June 2016 and the same are now being scrutinized so that the Telecom Department can take further action in the matter. As per Parliamentary procedure, the CAG Report is now pending before the Public Accounts Committee.
The pertinent question is how is this a scam of the NDA Government? The under reporting by the telecom service providers relates to the period when UPA was in power. The UPA Government, under its very nose, allowed this under reporting. The Final CAG report pointed it out in February 2016 and only 3 weeks ago have the documents been sent by the CAG to the Telecom Department. Notwithstanding the fact that the issue is pending before the PAC, the Telecom Department, which is processing these documents, will take action. What is act of omission and commission by the present Government? An impropriety took place during the UPA Government for which the present Government will take action.
The question, however, is the pathetic plight of the Congress party. Notwithstanding the fact that this impropriety took place during the UPA Government, the Congress Spokesman made an empty noise about this being an NDA Telecom Scam. Shrillness, non-application of mind and a belligerent rhetoric seem to be the strategy of the Congress party. It is a pity that the Party has been pushed to this desperation.
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 "Arun Jaitley and Narendra Modi")
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