PTI, NEW DELHI: In a tell-all book published a month after his acquittal in the 2G spectrum scam case, former telecom minister Andimuthu Raja has questioned former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s “palpable silence” in defending the telecom policy that he himself had approved. In his book ‘2G Saga Unfolds’, Raja slammed the then CAG Vinod Rai saying the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General was “severely compromised” by Rai who had “ulterior motives” in over-reaching his constitutional function while auditing accounts relating to the 2G spectrum allocation.
Raja, who wrote the book during the trial of the case, claimed that he had got Manmohan Singh’s “approval to go ahead” for allocating 2G telecom spectrum to new players after he explained the whole process and that there was enough spectrum available.
Singh, he went on to claim, was repeatedly misinformed by his advisers and that telecom lobbies had influence over the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). “The UPA government’s and even more so Dr Manmohan Singh’s palpable silence in relation to defending my wholly justified actions” was like “silencing of our nation’s collective conscience”.
Raja also claimed that the former prime minister did not have any clue about the CBI raids with regard to the spectrum allocation. “On October 22, 2009 (after CBI raided telecom ministry and offices of some telecom operators) I met the Prime Minister in his office in South Block at around 7.00 pm. T.K.A. Nair (the then principal secretary in the PMO) was also present. People will find it hard to believe that the PM was quite surprised when I told him about the CBI raids,” he wrote.
In the book he termed the 2G Scam as a “shameful blemish on the sanctity of the administrative system of the country”. “It is my conviction consequent to the trial proceedings that there was political motivation to kill UPA 2 and Vinod Rai’s was the shoulder on which the gun was placed,” he wrote. Last month, a special court had acquitted Raja and all other accused on charges of corruption and cheating in the sale of radiowave licences in 2008 that derailed the-then Manmohan Singh-led government.
While CAG put presumptive loss in allocation of spectrum at Rs 1.76 lakh crore, the scam had led to Supreme Court cancelling 122 licences sold to companies. While there “hasn’t been a shred of actual proof of corruption”, his telecom policy had led to growth in teledensity and dramatic reduction in call charges, Raja wrote claiming he fought against telecom lobbies to draft a just spectrum auction policy.
Telecom lobbies were dead against giving licences to new players and just when the policy draft was in its final stages, a letter from the Prime Minister’s Office was received, the content of which matched the business interests of the lobbies, he said. “It is still a puzzle to me as to what could have prompted the PM to send that letter to me. With all due respect, I came of the opinion that such a letter bearing the PM’s signature should never have been sent.
