Digvijay says CAG figures "imaginary and not credible"

New Delhi, Aug 31: Congress leader

has come out in defence of his party that was left scathing in the coal block allocation issue. But in the course of doing so, Digvijay has slammed the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (

) whose report exposed the coal scam worth Rs 1.86 lakh crore.

In his usual fiery self, Digvijay cut to size the CAG saying that it was merely an audit agency and not an investigative one. He added that the job of CAG was only to present its findings to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), the Parliament will decide on what action to take on the same.

Digvijay also expressed his irk at the CAG for releasing the report to the press and commented on the same, "I have never attacked any Constitutional authority in my life. The person who is holding that position... you should see the past CAGs. They never sensationalised any issue. They were absolutely correct. They never went to press. It is the first time that some people in CAG have gone to the press and said what they wanted to say."

Raining verbal blows on the CAG further, Digvijay said that the CAG's figures on coal blocks allocations and the loss incurred by them were "imaginary and not based on credible findings". In an underhanded jibe at the Opposition, Digvijay added, "Instead of going on dharna and fooling people, the BJP should allow Parliament to function."

In an earlier interview with a newspaper, Digvijay slammed CAG chief Vinod Rai and accused that he was carrying out such malicious campaign since he has political ambitions. He stated the example of former CAG TN Chaturvedi, who was the one who exposed Rajiv Gandhi in the Bofors scandal. After he retired, he joined the BJP.

He has been quoted as saying, "The way the CAG is going, it is clear he has political ambitions like TN Chaturvedi. He has been giving notional and fictional figures that have no relevance to facts. How has he computed these figures? He is talking through his hat."

OneIndia News