Congress steered clear of comments on the Supreme Court observations over the delay in PM Manmohan Singh’s response to a plea seeking prosecution of then Telecom Minister A Raja in connection with the alleged irregularities in allocation of 2G spectrum.

“The Supreme Court has asked the government a question and the government will give an appropriate response tomorrow,” Congress spokesman Manish Tewari said in response to a specific query on the apex court’s observations.

At the same time, Tewari said it would be inappropriate and uncalled for to “second guess anything” on this issue.

Facing a volley on questions on Singh’s “inaction”, he asserted that the Prime Minister did take action by securing Telecom Minister A Raja’s resignation before the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) was tabled in Parliament.

“The Prime Minister has taken action. It is wrong to say he has not acted. Even before the CAG report was tabled in Parliament, it was the Prime Minister who secured the resignation of the Telecom Minister,” Tewari said in New Delhi on Wednesday.

Accusing the BJP of having “double standards” on corruption, he said the main opposition party should ask Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa to step down in the wake of a controversy surrounding allocation of land to his sons.

Tewari also praised former Communications Minister Arun Shourie as an eminent journalist and supported his contention that there was no need for a Joint Parliamentary Committee on the issue of 2G spectrum allocation.

On BJP’s allegations about Rahul Gandhi aide Kanishka Singh’s involvement in scams in Commonwealth Games-related projects, Tewari said Kanishka had given his explanation and the party has nothing more to say about it.

Tewari said the Prime Minister took action into the matter after allegations surfaced in public domain even before the official document the CAG report was tabled before Parliament in which certain adverse comments have been made against the licensing process during Raja’s period.

Claiming a high moral ground, Tewari said Congress and UPA has always taken action whenever there has been any corruption and people were found involved, no matter whoever it was.

At the same time, the Congress spokesperson sought to make a difference between “presumption and substance”, saying the CAG has given fact and interpretation on the issuing of licences during Raja’s period, but has on the other hand also maintained that whatever volume of losses to the government have been attributed is presumptive.

“There is a need to make a difference between what is presumptive and what is substantive”, he said.

Tewari said BJP has no right to raise the issue of corruption and it should look at its own “track record”.

Seeking to make a major issue out of the controversy surrounding allotment of government land to Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa’s sons, Tewari said,” the saga of BJP’s rule in Karnataka has been one of continuous and unrelenting corruption.”

He said the BJP should ask the Karnataka Chief Minister to step down and the whole issue needs to be investigated by an agency independent of the state’s jurisdiction.

He said any inquiry into the matter carried out under the Accountant General of Karnataka will not be impartial.