As late as Tuesday, two days after A Raja departed in disgrace for his alleged involvement in the 2G spectrum scam, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seemed to be defending the ousted telecom minister. On the day the Supreme Court questioned the inaction on Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy's plea to prosecute Raja, the prime minister counselled the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), whose report had made Raja's position untenable, to "distinguish between wrongdoing and genuine errors".

Speaking at the celebrations of 150 years of the government auditor, the prime minister advised the CAG to "appreciate the context and circumstances of decision-making processes". He even reminded the CAG that this required "a very high degree of professional skill and competence".

The prime minister had continued to defend Raja until the CAG's report, leaked in the media before it was tabled in parliament on Tuesday, indicted him for causing a loss of up to Rs 1.77 lakh crore to the exchequer. Even then, the prime minister had indicated that the decision to prevail upon the minister and his party, the Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam, would have to be that of the Congress high command.

The supreme court, however, demanded an explanation from the government over the prime minister's inaction on Swamy's plea to prosecute Raja. Swamy had sought direction to prime minister Manmohan Singh to sanction prosecution of the minister under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Swamy had first approached the Delhi high court soon after the spectrum was allocated. Along with Swamy's plea, the court was also seized of a petition by the centre for public interest litigation on the spectrum sale.

The apex court's observations came on the day the central government continued to stonewall the opposition's demands of a joint parliamentary probe into the scam, and the CAG's 77-page report tabled in parliament virtually cleared the prime minister's office of any wrongdoing.

Even as the prime minister seemed to counsel the CAG on the virtues of caution, Maharashtra governor K Sankaranarayanan said in Mumbai that the auditor needs more powers and called for arming the body with enforceable mandate to improve public accountability.