Following the 2G Scam verdict, BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying in 2019, the public will hold the BJP accountable “for what we have done, whether it is black money coming from abroad or the prosecution of the corrupt and so on.”
Swamy was the first public figure to launch a '2G missile' against the UPA government, charging corruption over the 2G auction.
Addressing a press conference in the wake of the acquittal of all the accused in the 2G Scam on Thursday, Swamy said the prime minister must take up fighting corruption on a war footing and pull out from the investigation those persons who are not keen on fighting corruption.
He believed there were people in his party who are not very enthusiastic about fighting corruption. So this should be given special focus and a special team should be set up after this judgement, Swamy suggested to Prime Minister Modi.
Calling the verdict by CBI special judge O.P. Saini 'bad', the senior BJP leader maintained, “This (judgement) is not a setback at all. I would call it an aberration because the law officers were not serious about fighting corruption. I would like the prime minister to take a lesson from this and set up a war-like council for fighting corruption. There are many honest officers in our government.”
However, he did not lose the opportunity to come down heavily on former finance minister and Congress leader P. Chidambaram, and former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan. But he added a new name to that list: Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian. Swamy also used the interaction to hit out against Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
Swamy alleged, “There are many officers who are still loyal to Chidambaram. I have been pointing out, first it was Raghuram Rajan, and now Arvind Subramanian has declared that the prime minister is a very mediocre leader in an oped article in the Business Standard and has said the Gujarat model is all bogus. And he is our economic adviser, and you call us intolerant on top of that. How tolerant the prime minister is! there is a person who says he is mediocre and the Gujarat model is bogus, and he is still in our government. There are many such officers particularly in the finance ministry, which needs a purge, and we must now fight corruption on a war footing.”
On the Congress demanding an apology from the government and Vinod Rai—who as CAG exposed the 2G scam and gave it a figure—the BJP leader retorted, “The Supreme Court said there is criminality, that is why they set up this special court. What happens if we win in the appeal tomorrow? Will the apology be withdrawn? What is the meaning of giving an apology just now? The Congress has gone mad, because they have been so depressed all this while; they needed some thing to clutch on to. This however is going to be short-lived.”
He reiterated that this was not a final judgement. They will get a befitting reply in the final appeal, if the government appoints proper officers to deal with this, he said, pointing out that he won the graft case against late Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa in the appeal, as he had also won the 2G case earlier.
“This is not a setback for 2019. But the way we have dealt with corruption so far won't do; that is why I say it has to be taken up on a war footing. A lawyer cannot argue unless he is provided good material.” he said.
Admitting that the anti-corruption agenda on which the BJP won elections has been derailed, he said they could however 'rerail' it. “Once a train is derailed, it does not mean we cannot run the trains again. It is a very simple matter. You need some honest straightforward officers, good lawyers, not those who do chamchagiri to ministers, but somebody with stature. We have to put them together, have a team work on war footing and within three months, we can reverse whatever has happened.”
According to him, while the Coal Scam was the biggest in terms of money involved, the 2G Scam
is most dangerous because it concerns national security. “You have sold all the spectrum to foreigners, there is all the evidence,” he declared.
