Minister of state in the Prime Minister’s Office V. Narayanasamy has landed in a piquant situation with India’s premier news agency, PTI, rejecting his claim that it had misquoted him saying the government was “actively considering” making the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) into a multi-member body.
“The minister indeed said that the multi-member proposal was under active consideration of the government.
We have his interview to PTI is on tape,” a top PTI editor told DC, even as several opposition leaders slammed the multi-member move as ‘unconstitutional’ and a ‘bad idea’.
In the PTI interview, Narayanasamy was asked about recommendation made by former CAG, V.K. Shunglu, that the CAG should be made multi-member body. PTI quoted the minister as replying that the government “is actively considering” Shunglu’s suggestion. However, he maintained before TV cameras later that PTI had misquoted him. He had only told the PTI reporter that six reports of the Shunglu committee were under government consideration, the minister claimed.
He said the reporter had not specifically asked about CAG. “I did not specifically reply to him about CAG which he misquoted saying the government is considering making CAG a multi-member body. I did not say that,” Narayanasamy said.
Calling his bluff, PTI released the transcript of his taped interview, wherein it was clear that the reporter had
specifically asked the minister about Shunglu’s proposal that CAG be made a three-member body instead of being just one member to bring in more transparency to its functioning. “The recommendation is somewhere in the PMO,” the reporter had told Narayanasamy, to which the latter replied, “No, no. It is under active consideration…(the government) is actively considering.”