CAG-itated politics: How audit reports upend political fortunes

NEW DELHI: Political parties and CAG reports have shared a hot and cold relationship in Indian politics over the decades. Interestingly, the two become quite inseparable when the elections approach. Delhi witnessed this recently when audit report of exorbitant spending on CM's official residence, injected into public consciousness as 'sheeshmahal' scam, was one of the key reasons that helped the Bharatiya Janata Party seal the fate of Aam Aadmi Party.
A simple look at the CAG website and the number of reports released in a year shows a drop by almost half, relatively during poll years, exception being 2014. This indicates how the ruling parties have done their best to keep the report away from the public glare, while the opposition has ensured it puts a spotlight on it.

So, while several reports were used to shape the collective consciousness of the public towards parties like the Congress and the AAP, many other reports were carefully brushed under the carpet.

Any discussion on

CAG report

and politics would perhaps be incomplete without a mention of the 2G scam and the

coal block scam

that played a key role in the downfall of Manmohan Singh-led UPA government in 2014.

The scam that wasn't

The 2G spectrum "scam" that led to the loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crores to the exchequer did not turn out to be a scam after the Supreme Court acquitted everyone.
The apex court even pulled up the CBI saying that "the prosecution miserably failed to prove any charge against any of the accused, made in its well choreographed chargesheet."
No matter the verdict, the "scam" did what it was supposed to -- put a final lock on the UPA government's fate -- paving way for the "Modi wave".

'Conscience' shaking scam

The coal scam that led to the downfall of UPA government was much talked about. Referring to this, the NDA government last year dubbed it as the scam that "shook the conscience of the nation in 2014", with a loss of Rs 1.86 lakh crore to the exchequer.
"These actions were scrutinised by investigation agencies, and in 2014, the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India cancelled the allocation of 204 coal mines/blocks allocated since 1993," the central government said and rightly so.
After BJP came to power in 2014, it had introduced a revamped coal auction and allocation system, facilitating the distribution of those 204 coal blocks. However, in doing so, it ignored warnings from its own leaders who said that it would lead to corruptions and scams.
An investigation by The Reporters’ Collective revealed that the Union government had received early warnings in 2015 that its new coal auction system was vulnerable to corruption. However, no action was taken upon those warnings and the government went ahead with the new coal auction regime.
And the two MPs were proved right.
In 2016, a new CAG report on the e-auctions conducted in 2015 under the NDA government was released. It exposed irregularities in the allocation of coal blocks. The report documented instances of collusion and potential auction rigging by private firms, which secured coal blocks at prices that yielded suboptimal financial returns to the government.
It found that the upfront payments made by successful bidders were undervalued by over Rs 382 crore, raising concerns about the fairness and effectiveness of the coal allocation system.
Congress was quick to latch on to this and alleged that rules were tweaked to favour one of the leading businessmen from Gujarat, who they claim is close to the government. It also cited instances where it emerged as the sole bidder. However, this never left any impact on the people enough to upend BJP's fate in 2024

Lok Sabha

elections.

Congress and CAG not meant for each other

Two years ago, several CAG reports came out but missed the public eye. One of those was that of Dwarka expressway where the cost of construction reached Rs 250 crore per kilometer against the approved cost of Rs 18.2 crore.
Further, anomalies were found in the Ayushman Bharat scheme where the payments were being made to the dead. In 7.5 lakh cases, the beneficiaries were found to be linked to the same mobile number which was invalid.
Other irregularities included undue benefits in the Ayodhya Development Project, NHAI collecting Rs 132 crore in toll violations, HAL's faulty aircraft engine designs causing Rs 159 crore in losses, and misuse of pension funds by the rural development ministry for promotions, fraud in the Bharat Mala Project with costs doubling, which were used by the Congress, but remained limited to its website and X handles.
Even though the timing was apt and the nature of scams were people-centric, an opportunity to create a '2G' was missed by the grand old party as it refused to leave its grand old ways of connecting with the masses. No Anna Hazare was created, no protests held, no Kejriwal raised slogans and hence, no corruption ever occurred.