At a time the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) was examining 2G spectrum allocation last year, an official of the government auditor had purportedly received a phone call from chairman of parliament's public accounts committee Murli Manohar Joshi who wanted the work to be expedited as he feared that "Executive" would go for a "cover up".

This is indicated in a letter written by senior CAG official R P Singh to deputy CAG Rekha Gupta on July 13, 2010 which surfaced on Tuesday.

In the letter, the CAG's DG(Report Central) had said Joshi had called him to say that "there was tremendous pressure on him from Parliamentarians, media etc about the examination being done by the Public Accounts Committee in respect of 'recent development in Telecom sector, including allocation of 2G and 3G spectrum and that if the probe is further delayed, the Executive would get the time to cover up the issue."

Sinha further wrote, "He (Joshi) further stated that in view of the tremendous interest, heightened anxieties and pressure from all concerned including media, it would be appropriate for the PAC also to submit its report soon after the CAG's report is submitted to the President during the Monsoon Session (of Parliament)."

Joshi said that it would be appropriate that his (Sinha's) office briefed him and the committee in "two and three days after the next meeting of the PAC scheduled to be held on 15th/16th July, 2010", Sinha wrote.

"I informed him that the matter will need to be taken up with the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India," the official wrote.

When asked about the development, CAG Vinod Rai rejected any attempt to influence the auditor's work.

"(There is) no question of Joshi trying to influence CAG report," he told reporters.

In view of the development, Congress leader Digvijay Singh questioned whether estimates of the losses incurred in the 2G spectrum allocations were inflated "at the behest of chairman PAC".

"With new facts coming in, few questions arise. Was the figure inflated? Was it made in haste?? Was it at behest of chairman PAC?," Digvijay Singh said on Twitter.

"Is it a fact that the chairman PAC contacted CAG regarding 2G before submission of CAG report? It was denied by the CAG but now documents prove he did," he said.

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CAG Vinod Rai appears before JPC

Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Vinod Rai on Tuesday appeared before the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), a day after his former colleague R P Singh sought to dismiss the presumptive loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore due to 2G spectrum allocation as a "mathematical guess".

Rai, who appeared before the JPC along with deputy CAG Rekha Gupta, had written to committee chairman P C Chacko requesting the presence of R P Singh, former director general, audit (Post and Telecommunications) during his deposition.

Singh had told the JPC on Monday that his calculation in a draft audit report was based on inflation rate of seven years as the entry fee decided in 2001 was not revised in 2008.

He had told the JPC that the "actual loss" due to spectrum allocation was Rs 2,645 crore as against the Rs 1.76 lakh crore in the final report.

Singh had also said that he was compelled to sign the final report to which he did not agree in its entirety.

Rai and Gupta were present at the meeting venue at 11:00 AM and had to wait for over an hour as members held internal discussions on Singh's deposition and Chacko's briefing to the media.

A section of the members felt that Chacko's media briefing yesterday appeared to be biased against the CAG institution merely on the basis of remarks of a senior official.

The chairman is learnt to have taken a plea that he was quoted out of context by a section of the media.

Gehlot Cabinet resigns, reshuffle soon

Jaipur, Nov 15 (PTI) The entire Rajasthan Cabinet resigned today to pave the way for Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot to carry out a reshuffle after the Congress government was hit by a series of controversies including the mysterious disappearance of nurse Bhanwari Devi.

The Ministers in the Gehlot government gave their collective resignation to the Chief Minister at a Cabinet meeting chaired by him.

"All the ministers took collective decision to submit resignation to show faith and express confidence in the leadership of Ashok Gehlot so that he can strongly can say before the party high command in New Delhi that his team is with him," Shanti Dhariwal, who resigned as home minister, told reporters after the meeting.

He said there was no crisis on the government and Gehlot did not ask the cabinet to resign, but the decision taken by all the cabinet and state ministers was a collective one.

"For a long time, there was atmosphere of uncertainty in politics in the state and there were some directions from the party high command also so we found mass resignation an appropriate step to strengthen Gehlot," Dhariwal said.

"Now cabinet reshuffle will take place in near future as per the direction of the high command," he said.

When asked what was the need for a mass resignation for a cabinet reshuffle, he said the ministers wanted to strengthen Gehlot's hands and express leadership in their leader (Gehlot) so this course of action was decided.

The emergency meeting was called by Gehlot to discuss the political situation in view of criticism over the alleged involvement of some Congress ministers in the disappearance of 36-year-old auxillary nurse Bhanwari Devi.

Sacked Minister Mahipal Maderna, a key suspect in the Bhanwari disappearance case, was suspended from the primary membership of Congress last Saturday.
The Congress leader also questioned whether the CAG had an agenda like former CAG T N Chaturvedi.

"Does CAG have an agenda? Does he want to follow the footsteps of TN Chaturvedi (e)X CAG, of Bofors Report, BJP MP and Governor?" Digvijay Singh said.