India’s main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday slammed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yet again for his alleged silence over the 2G spectrum allocation scam.
The BJP statement comes hours after Singh, in an affidavit before the Supreme Court on the 2G Spectrum scam, said that there was no inaction on his part for allowing prosecution of former Telecom minister A Raja.
“It is a glaring case where the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh is patently involved in the conspiracy of silence, culpability of inaction and guilty of gross indifference, when nations’ wealth was being plundered by a Minister right under his nose by massive abuse of system and yet the head of the Government Dr. Manmohan Singh looked the other way,” said BJP national secretary Ravi Shankar Prasad.
“The orchestrated praise about the integrity of the Prime Minister cannot wash the stain of inaction and indifference. The nation is entitled to draw its own conclusion,” he said.
He further said: “It is indeed curious and surprising that since yesterday (Friday), Ministers and the leaders of the Congress have suddenly come in the defence of the Prime Minister over the massive scam concerning 2G spectrum allocation, which has led to a colossal loss of nearly 1.76 lacs crores to the nation. However, this sudden playing of the “Rag Darbari” cannot hide one stark fact.”
Prasad picked up Singh over rejecting ‘all applications’ during the open licence regime.
“A licence cannot be operated till one gets the spectrum, scarce national resource. Why you allowed it to be sold in the year 2007 at the 2001 price when tele-density in the country had increased by more than seven times.
“This question he will have to answer because on Nov 2, 2007 the Prime Minister claims to have written to Mr. Raja to use transparent mechanism of auction for the correct price of spectrum.
“Mr. Raja replied on 2nd Dec. and on 26th Dec 2007 by almost flouting his direction to go for auction. Yet, the Prime Minister chose to look the other way by his letter dated 3rd Jan 2008 which meant that the then Communication Minister Mr. Raja can go ahead with his ‘Operation Loot’,” said Prasad.
The BJP leader further slammed the PM for not ordering a review of entire allocation of 2G spectrum and enquiry ‘when the 3G spectrum auction against the target of 35,000 crores earned the Government a huge benefit of 1 lac crores’.
“Why did the Prime Minister chose to keep silent when about 85 ineligible companies (as found by the CAG) were granted letters of Intent and more surprisingly the companies which won the licences were permitted to trade in spectrum.
“As a result Swan telecom which won the licence for about 1500 crores and Unitech which won the licence for about 1600 crores and many others sold a part of their equity to foreign partners, who sprang overnight at a price ranging from 7000-9000 crores,” said Prasad.
“When all this was happening why did the Prime Minister yet kept quiet when confirmed evidence of deliberate under-pricing of 2G spectrum became evident?”
The BJP claimed that the entire issue was debated ‘extensively’ in the Parliament in July 2009, yet a ‘vague reply’ was given though, all the above facts and much of what the CAG has said was brought to the notice of the Government by the BJP.
India is witnessing a deeply disturbing and distressing spectacle, said Prasad.
“The Prime Minister claims, he is a man of great integrity and professes probity and yet right under his nose lacs of crores of public money is being looted systematically by people who are part of the system and work under him. Be it the 2G spectrum scam or, the Commonwealth Organising Committee massive scam and other scams. The nation is not going to believe the ‘Besura Rag Darbari’ and the people would draw their own conclusions,” he said.
“The Prime Minister has appealed to the opposition to allow the Parliament to run and debate and discuss. The BJP would like to ask the Prime Minister that we have debated, re-debated discussed, re-discussed and asked questions repeatedly. Mr. Prime Minister, you had defended Mr. Raja initially and be very honest but for the Parliamentary pressure you would not have even asked him to resign,” said Prasad.
“Mr. Prime Minister you want debate, the BJP wants action and those responsible must be arrested and sent to jail and prosecuted under the Prevention of Corruption Act. We want A. Raja and company, including the beneficiaries to be interrogated, arrested and prosecuted.
“JPC (Joint Parliamentary Committee) is the only instrument to ensure that all this is done.”
“Shri Pranab Mukharjee (Union Finance Minister) assured that he would revert to our leaders (Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley) after consultation with the Prime Minister. Till date he has not conveyed any formal proposal to enable the opposition to take a final view,” Prasad added.
On Saturday, refuting charges of delay in sanction of prosecution of Raja, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in an 11-page affidavit claimed that action was duly taken on every letter received from former MP Subramanium Swamy seeking permission to act against Raja.
The affidavit was filed through Director (PMO) V Vidyawati wherein the prime minister said: “I am making this affidavit only for the purpose of showing how the various letters received from the petitioner have been duly considered.”
The affidavit states that the prime minister had pursued several letters received from Swamy between November 29, 2008, to October 5, 2010, on the 2G Spectrum issue as per the advice of the Law ministry.
Based on the advice of the Law ministry, Vidyawati prepared a note on February 9, 2010, stating that the decision of granting sanction for prosecution may be determined only after the perusal of the evidence (oral or documentary) collected by the investigating agency (Central Bureau of Investigation) and other materials to be provided by the competent authorities.
The affidavit claimed that the PM was examining the matter in consultation with several wings of the government, like the Department of Legal affairs, Department Of Personnel and Training, Law Ministry and the Telecom Department.
The Prime Minister is being represented by India’s top legal officer, the Attorney General, in the Supreme Court after the PM was asked to reply why he did not act on a plea to prosecute A Raja, the former telecom minister accused of enacting the multi-billion 2G spectrum scam.
Attorney General of India GE Vahanvati replaced Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium to argue for the Prime Minister who faced an unprecedented rebuke by the Supreme Court on the 2G scam.
The 2G Spectrum scam spelt the biggest embarrassment for the Central government on Thursday as the Supreme Court (SC) sought an affidavit on behalf of the Prime Minister.
The court was responding to the allegations of no response from the PMO to Janata Dal leader Subramanium Swamy’s repeated letters seeking sanction to prosecute former Telecom minister A Raja in the scam which cost the state exchequer Rs 1.76 lakh crore (nearly $40 billion).
On Tuesday, the court had asked the government to explain why the PM took 11 months to respond to a request by former Law Minister Subramaniam Swamy that asked for Raja to be prosecuted for the 2G scam.