Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) Vinod Rai on Thursday (Feb 7) rebutted criticism that the official auditor was exceeding its mandate, saying it was treading a "new path in the belief that the final stakeholder is the public at large". In a lecture at the Harvard Kennedy School, he referred to the CAG exceeding its mandate to say that since the Indian democracy is maturing and the urban middle class is becoming more involved in affairs of citizens, "we continue to tread the new path in the belief that the final stakeholder is the public at large".