Shashi Tharoor asks BJP to desist from smear campaigns

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday said the BJP should desist from "smear campaigns" and levelling false accusations as it did in the 2G spectrum case.

"After all this smear campaign and election jumlas, see what the court has said. People resort to unfounded allegations against rivals. There may be differences in the policies but it is not right to mount false accusations," Tharoor said speaking with reporters.

His remarks came after a special CBI court on Thursday gave a clean chit to all the accused in the alleged multi-thousand crore rupee 2G spectrum scandal, including then Telecom Minister A. Raja and DMK MP Kanimozhi.

Tharoor said that the present government's claim to have earned several thousand crore rupees more than the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government from the spectrum auction is a "matter of policy difference and not corruption".

"We sold the spectrum at less price so that the consumers could get cheaper call rates. This was a policy decision to enhance mobile connectivity in the country and make mobile phone calls more affordable to a large number of people.

"Now the present government has the policy of filling the government coffers and hence they sold the spectrum at higher price. Our party was concerned about the common people, Mr. Jaitley is concerned about filling the coffers. That is a policy difference. There is no question of corruption in this," Tharoor said.