Finance Minister Arun Jaitley tells CAG not to sensationalise findings

Earlier, the Congress-led UPA which was hit by the CAG’s report on 2G and coal scams had also toed the same line. At that time, the BJP was the beneficiary.

“Auditor should be conscious of the fact that he is reviewing a decision that has already been taken. Have the fair procedures been followed? He doesn’t have to sensationalise. He doesn’t have to get into the headlines,” Mr Jaitley said at the annual conference of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).

Union finance minister Arun Jaitley was of the view that an auditor has to be “an active auditor but activism and restraint are always the two sides of the same coin”.

“He (auditor) has to scrutinise thoroughly the decision-making process. He has to necessarily eliminate the possibility of any form of nepotism,” he said.

The minister said that the auditor must take “a more liberal approach” when confronted with multiple views.

“Let us also not forget when we live in a society, which by temperament, having learnt the hard way the last few years, have become an over suspicious society and therefore our job is not to convert the public opinion into a kind of a lynch mob,” he said.