Guwahati:
Rubbishing government's claim of any wrongdoing in the 2G spectrum allocation, BJP today asked why was A Raja forced to quit as Telecom minister if the loss to the exchequer estimated at Rs.1.76 lakh crore was not true.
"If the entire argument is that there was no loss to the exchequer then why did Raja resign from the Government?" asked senior leader Arun Jaitley.
"Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal's entire argument is fallacious. He is just playing with statistics ...confusing the position ...(he is playing) the PAC+JPC+CBI all rolled into one...and contending that there is no loss as far as revenue is concerned ", Jaitley, who has come here to participate in the BJP National Executive meeting beginning here tomorrow, told reporters.
The Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha said that Sibal has "missed the basic point" as regards the scam.
"When spectrum was alloted in 2008, why was it done at 2001 prices?" he asked.
Jaitley said an all-India licence was taken at the cost of Rs 1,651 Crore by a licensee who sold a large part of its equity to foreign investors at USD 2 billion.
BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad described as "reprehensible" Sibal's comments against the CAG.
"He (Sibal) has chosen to publicly criticise and condemn a constitutional body like the CAG when the entire report of CAG is under scrutiny before the PAC where the department of Sibal could have filed its explanation to CAG report as per well laid out Parliamentary norms," Prasad told PTI.
He alleged that Sibal has over-reached the "entire Parliamentary propriety" and charged him with breach of privilege.
"Sibal's entire comment is an attempt to justify in an overt or covert manner the inglorious corruption of Raja in UPA-II which has caused serious loss of tax payers' money in lakhs of crores," Prasad said.
The Rajya Sabha MP said the Telecom Minister's "belated justification" would only further expose the corruption on UPA-II.