2G Verdict Is Vindication, Says Rahul Gandhi, Targeting PM Over "Lies"

New Delhi: A day after a special court acquitted all accused in the 2G scam, one of the biggest corruption scandals to gut the Manmohan Singh government, Congress president Rahul Gandhi hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for what he called an "architecture of lies".

"You all know the truth now about 2G, the truth is in front of you," Rahul Gandhi told reporters after chairing a meeting of the Congress Working Committee - his first since becoming party chief.

On Thursday, a special CBI court said investigators had failed to prove allegations that 2G or second generation spectrum was allocated out-of-turn at cheaper rates in exchange for bribes when the Congress was in power and DMK's A Raja was telecom minister. The national auditor's charge that the Manmohan Singh government lost Rs 1.76 lakh crore in revenues by not taking the auction route was rubbished by the court, which commented that "a huge scam was seen by everyone where there was none".

The Congress has called it vindication, while the BJP says corruption in the spectrum allocation was proved when Supreme Court cancelled all 2G licences handed by Mr Raja.

In his first response to the 2G verdict today, Mr Gandhi said the BJP's "whole foundation is the foundation of lies".

He said: "If you see the Modi model in Gujarat, it was a lie, clearly. People of Gujarat told us there is no model. What is going on is the stealing of resources that belong to the people of Gujarat and that's their design...whether it is 15 lakh rupees in every account, whether it is 2G, whether it is the Modi model...One by one the lies are coming out."

As he led his party's top decision-making body's meeting for the first time, Rahul Gandhi was flanked by his mother Sonia Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh.