PM, Vinod Rai must apologise to nation on 2G spectrum issue: Salman Khurshid

Chennai, Nov 2: Senior Congress leader and former Union minister, Salman Khurshid on Thursday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) Vinod Rai for maligning his party on the 2G spectrum issue.

Addressing media persons, he said that the affidavit of Vinod Rai to Sanjay Nirupam that what he said during the 2G spectrum issue was untrue proved that Rai "had thrown all morality, honesty, and decency to the wind".

He demanded that all those who raised the issue including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Rai, Gen V.K. Singh (retd), Kiran Bedi, Baba Ramdev, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, and Anna Hazare apologise to the nation.

Khurshid said that Rai is presently the Chairman of the Banking Services Recruitment Board, but has not uttered a single word on the "huge banking scam" that was taking place in the country after the Narendra Modi government took over in 2014.

He said that there was not a single statement from the former C&AG regarding the 13,500 crore Punjab National Bank bank fraud as well as several other banking scams that had rocked the nation. He said that Rai was silent on Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi, Lalit Modi, Vijay Mallya, and several others who had fled the country after committing banking fraud amounting to thousands of crores.

He said that the impact of 2G spectrum scam was affecting the Congress even today and that along with the party, the country has also suffered, citing the rise in fuel prices "and the kind of corruption that was never witnessed before".

Noting that Rai's affidavit fully exposed "the conspiracy to malign, defame and bring down the UPA government led by Congress", he said that the party would raise the matter in every forum, including the Winter session of the Parliament. He also said that the court had not found any evidence of wrongdoing in 2G spectrum allocation.