Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Yashwant Sinha on Thursday lashed out at Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari for blaming former Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Vinod Rai for the economic downturn, and said that enormous corruption in the Congress-led UPA II Government has spoiled the Indian story.
"He is absolutely wrong, and, he is nothing but a 'bhonpu' for the government. CAG, CBI, other agencies of the government are doing nothing except bringing to the public domain the enormous corruption in this government and it certainly is the reason. CAG is not the reason, corruption is the reason," said Sinha.
"So, instead of dealing with the disease, if Manish Tewari decides to shoot the messenger, so be it. But the point is that corruption has spoiled the Indian story," he added.
Tewari, who was speaking yesterday at the Mail Today Education Conclave 2013, said it is not the 'J- virus' syndrome - C.P. Joshi, Sriprakash Jaiswal, Jayanthi Natarajan and Jairam Ramesh - that has hobbled the India growth story.
Tewari said the infection is entirely different: the 'R-virus', meaning former Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai.
"One of the greatest damages done to this country was by the former CAG. Rather than the J-virus, it was the R-virus that derailed the growth story," he said.