Think before you speak, Congress tells CAG

With Opposition attacking it for critcising CAG, Congress today maintained that it was not trying to gag the auditor but it should "give proper thought" before giving its opinion.

"We have not been saying that every word of the CAG is wrong and that it should not open its mouth. We are not saying whatever it says is wrong.

"We are only saying that the CAG should say anything only after giving a proper thought to it. It should think, it should weigh and then say," party spokesperson Renuka Chowdhary told reporters.

She said that the CAG gave its "opinion in addition to auditing" on the coal block allocation but the Supreme Court has now said that "the step taken by the government was not wrong".

The BJP has criticised the Congress and the government saying no attempt should be made to use the judgement to justify "wrong" decisions and "malign or forewarn" constitutional authorities.

Batting for CAG, BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman hit out at the Union Cabinet ministers who had said yesterday that the Supreme Court observation about auction not being the sole method of allocation of natural resources vindicated their stand. The ministers had also said CAG should keep this mind while doing its job.

The Congresss spokesperson also dismissed reports that expenditure of Rs 29 lakh was incurred on the UPA dinner hosted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the occassion of releasing the report card on completion of UPA II's three years in May this year.

"Should we keep looking at these things from such a tunnel vision? This is regrettable. Are you going to decide the condition of the economy by the food offered at a party hosted by the Prime Minister? Should we also stop offering tea from tomorrow to you all coming here? It is unfortunate that everything is reduced to a farce and such questions are asked," a miffed Chowdhary told reporters who asked her questions on the UPA dinner.