Karunanidhi avoids CAG do, asks watchdog to be fair

Scheduled to address a function to celebrate the 15th year of the CAG here on Tuesday, DMK chief M Karunanidhi went to Mahabalipuram, 50 km away, instead.

Scheduled to address a function to celebrate the 15th year of the CAG here on Tuesday, DMK chief M Karunanidhi went to Mahabalipuram, 50 km away, instead.

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The reason as perceived: It was the Comptroller and Auditor General of India that condemned his blue-eyed boy A Raja in the 2G spectrum scam and virtually forced him to resign as telecom minister on Sunday.

It seems the Tamil Nadu chief minister has triggered a low-intensity war to save his party’s face after letting Raja step down under UPA pressure.

The CAG report, tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, indicted Raja for allotting licences to companies at throwaway prices in 2008, resulting in a R1.76-lakh-crore loss to the exchequer.

But lest it looked like a boycott, he let his son and deputy chief minister, MK Stalin, to read out his speech in absentia. Of course, he did not explicitly refer to the scam, but advised the CAG to be “fair and unbiased”. Power came with an equally big responsibility, he reminded the watchdog. “It should be based only on meticulous groundwork... It is your duty to ensure this task is carried out in … public interest alone.”

The CM, however, said in another a statement that the CAG report had “only” stated the loss incurred due to Raja’s handling of licence distribution was a presumptive loss.