Congress should apologize for alleging spectrum scam during Vajpayee rule: BJP

NEW DELHI: BJP today sought an apology from Congress after a court termed as "false and fabricated" a CBI case alleging scam in 2G spectrum allocation during Vajpayee government's tenure and cited some recent judicial orders to accuse it of conspiring to tarnish its leaders.

Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said a host of judicial orders, including two from the Supreme Court, had "exposed" the conspiracies being "hatched" by the opposition party to defame Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the previous NDA government.

When A Raja, Telecom Minister in UPA government, had resigned over the 2G spectrum allocation scam, the then Cabinet Minister Kapil Sibal had claimed that the government's policy was continuation of previous Vajpayee dispensation's decision, he said.

CBI had chargesheeted private firms and Telecom Secretary under NDA rule Shyamal Ghosh but a special 2G court today discharged him as well as these companies, saying the agency had filed a "false and fabricated" charge sheet against them.

Javadekar also cited the indictment of dismissed IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, who had tried to link the then Gujarat Chief Minister Modi with 2002 post-Godhra riots, by the apex court to accuse Congress of being the "handler and conspirator" and using Bhatt as a "pawn".

"The lies of Congress have been expossed. Its conspiracy has fallen apart. We seek an apology from Congress. After these orders, it is not saying anything. It is resorting to spit, run and hide tactic," Javadekar told a press conference, noting that it ran a campaign against Modi for 13 years on the basis of Bhatt's allegation.

He also referred to a Supreme Court decision to dismiss a bunch of pleas seeking a probe into the alleged scam in purchase of defence equipments in 1999 Kargil operations to hit out at the opposition party.

Congress, he recalled, had boycotted the then Defence Minister George Fernandes alleging 'coffin scam'.

"All the lies of Congress have been unmasked. For 15 years, it hounded Fernandes. For 13 years, it tried to defame Modi by using Bhatt," he said.