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Congress defends Dikshit in wake of CWG report

By The Assam Tribune

New Delhi, Aug 5 (IANS): The Congress on Friday defended its Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit as the Opposition stepped up its attack after the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report on financial irregularities in the Commonwealth Games (CWG) was tabled in Parliament.

The report, which is reported to have pointed a finger at the Chief Minister, was itself not a ground for Dikshit to resign, said Law Minister Salman Khurshid.

"That (objections raised by CAG report) doesn't automatically lead to kind of things that should require people to step down," Khurshid told reporters. "There can be an objection that can be in normal administrative nature which may be found to be unacceptable by the CAG or court for that matter. We have to let parliament see what kind of report is being made, what reply if at all is there to the report; let parliament make up its mind," he said.

"Parliament has its procedure and Parliament will decide what has to be done. This is the whole purpose but for last one week we have been hearing what is in the report, and I think it is completely unacceptable that we should take a view on the report before it comes to Parliament," he said.

His colleague, union Earth Sciences Minister Ashwani Kumar, agreed and said there was no finality in the CAG report on the indictment of the Delhi Chief Minister.

"The report of CAG has no finality attached to it as far as indictment of Chief Minister (is concerned). This report has been extensively commented upon by the chief minister. Let the two views come out in the open," he said, adding that the debate should be rational rather than political.

He said there was no comparison between the situation in Delhi and that in Karnataka, where BJP's BS Yeddyurappa was forced to resign after he was indicted for illegal mining in a report by the state's Lokayukta.

The main Opposition party has sharpened its attack against Dikshit after the CAG report, reported to be blaming her for irregularities in CWG contracts.

"I think now it is the only moral duty of Dikshit that she must resign," BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar told reporters. "If not, the Congress high command must ask her to step down immediately and they can elect their new Chief Minister," he said.

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