Former Comptroller and Auditor General of India Vinod Rai
Vinod Rai, who served as the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in the previous UPA government, has criticised former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and claimed that Congress leaders had sought to apply pressure on him to keep the PM's name out of audit reports.
Mr Rai, whose loss estimates in 2G spectrum and coal block allocations pushed the UPA government into a corner, was also critical of the coalition politics under Dr Singh and alleged that he was more interested in remaining in power.
"Integrity is not just financial - it is intellectual integrity, it is professional integrity. You have an oath of allegiance to the Constitution and that is important," he said in an interview to a magazine.
Mr Rai added, "You cannot have the nation being subjugated to the state and the state being a coalition of political parties. The belief was that good politics makes good economics too. But does good politics mean just staying in power?"
Mr Rai, who is writing a book on his days as CAG, also said that his phone was tapped by the then UPA government and that he felt Dr Singh was part of the decisions to allocate 2G telecom spectrum on first-cum-first serve basis and coal blocks without auction.
"...in 2G and coal there is no way he (Singh) can shirk responsibility. In 2G all the letters written by (then telecom Minister) A Raja were to him and he was replying to those letters. I got no reply to any letter I wrote to him.
"On one occasion when I called on him, the PM said I hope you don't expect a reply from me, whereas he was replying to Raja twice a day. So how can he be not held responsible for the onus of that decision?" Mr Rai said.
Recalling that Dr Singh had on November 16, 2010 told him that the figure of Rs 1.76 lakh crore 2G loss was not the right way of computing, Mr Rai said he had told the then PM, "'Sir, these are the econometric methods that you have taught us'. This was sitting on the stage of Vigyan Bhavan."