2G verdict good news for Congress, but UPA has enough scams to worry about

The CBI court on Thursday acquitted DMK leaders A Raja and Kanimozhi in the 2-G spectrum scam, citing lack of evidence.

Rai had calculated that the 2G spectrum allocation in 2008, under UPA 1, led to notional loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the national exchequer.

Following the verdict, Congress and DMK leaders slammed Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Vinod Rai, saying that he owed the UPA government an apology and the nation an explanation. Some even suggested that had the scam not been highlighted the way it had, then the BJP would have not won the 2014 elections.

While the BJP may have won the 2014 elections with 282 seats, they won 31% of the vote-share, while the Congress won 19% of the votes with just 44 seats. The party that had fielded Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate a few months before the elections played the development and anti-corruption card, stating that the Congress had misguided the nation and the scams that had been unearthed were proof of it.

During the period, there were other scams under the UPA II government. These include the coal block allocation scam and the Commonwealth Games scam. While the government passed bills such as the Lokpal Bill and bills to ensure women safety, the controversies clouded any attempt of development that the UPA had claimed they had incorporated for India.  

In the second tenure of UPA (2009-2014), 128 bills remained pending in Parliament. Of these, 68 bills were pending in Lok Sabha and lapsed with its dissolution. Sixty bills, which were pending in Rajya Sabha, were carried forward to the 16th Lok Sabha.

An India Today report analysed UPA-II report card only on the economic front. "According to the official Economic Survey for 2012-13, the moderation in growth is primarily attributed to weakness in industry which has registered a growth rate of 3.5% and 3.1% in 2011-12 and 2012-13, respectively. This has come down even further during the current fiscal with the manufacturing sector contracting as investment has declined due to the uncertainty created by a government weakened by a spate of scams," the report stated.

This, accompanied, by global crude oil prices, added to a number of people protesting against the Manmohan Singh-led government and also cost them votes.

Lack of a Health policy and women safety

In October this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi slammed the Congress-led UPA over the state of healthcare sector in the country, alleging that it had failed to bring a health policy during its 10-year rule. "The last health policy was announced during Atalji's (former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee) regime around 15 years back. After that, such a government assumed power which used to hate development. It did not have any empathy for the people," Modi said.

BJP played its cards well

Taking leverage on the scams that hit UPA 2, the BJP attacked the Congress during the 2014 election campaign. The Congress, too, had no way of defending the allegations, prompting the voter to go for the saffron party.

And while the 2G scam verdict may bring a smile to the Congress and the DMK, they still have skeletons in the closet with respect to coal gate and the CWG scam.