Acquitted by a special CBI Court in the multi-crore 2G scam, former Union Telecom Minister A. Raja launched a scathing attack on former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was the head of the 10-year long Congress-led UPA regime at the Centre supported by the DMK, of not ‘understanding’ the 2G scam in detail before speaking or airing his views about it.

Raja was in Mettupalayam yesterday to meet the people of his Lok Saba constituency where he was accorded a warm welcome. Raja, DMK president Karunanidhi’s daughter Kanimozhi and 12 others were acquitted in the case which dragged for many years and whose verdict was pronounced last Friday by Justice O.P. Saini of the special CBI Court in New Delhi.

Addressing a meeting, Raja said “The media painted a picture as if a major scam had broken out in 2G allocation process. This wrong campaign prevented us from winning the Assembly polls at least twice in the State,” and added that though Manmohan Singh governed the country very well, he and the Congress lost the 2014 Lok Sabha polls mainly because of such a campaign by the media.

“Even Singh didn’t understand the complexity of the scam and didn’t realize that nothing wrong occurred. Singh thought getting me arrested would set things right.  He, however, had to pay a heavy price later for it.  CBI and the Supreme Court dealt with the case in a manner similar to a blind man feeling an elephant’s features by caressing it,” Raja concluded.

Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) president Tirunavukkarasar refused to be drawn into a controversy when asked to react to the attack on Congress leader Singh by Raja, a leader of DMK which is still an ally of the Congress.