PM defends telecom policy, refutes S-band slur

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday defended the telecom policy of the nation that led to the 2G spectrum scam, saying there was nothing wrong with the strategy but the implementation was faulty.

“The basis policy, there is nothing wrong with that. It was consistent with the advice given by TRAI ( Telecom Regulatory Authority of India), it was consistent with the objective need that we all felt one time,” he said referring to the tele-density goals of the government.

“If there is a scam it must be dealt with, law of the land must punish the wrongdoers,” he said.

The PM said when he looked at the telecom situation in 2007-8, “the proposals that came to me that the ministry had decided not to go in for auctions at that time had the suppport of the technical arm of the TRAI, it had the support of the concerned ministry and I felt that for level playing field it was entirely appropriate that we shall continued on the path we had followed until 2007.”

“It turned out that while the policy was sound the implementation gave rise to problem,” he said.

He said the allegations are now being looked into by the JPC and “if there are any criminal aspects then the CBI is looking into that.”

“Our government will fully cooperate with all these agencies to ensure that the truth comes out,” he said.

The 2G scam has cost the exchequer about Rs 1.76 lakh crore, according to an estimate by the government’s auditors, the CAG.

The PM also defended himself in Parliament on Thursday saying the PMO was not in the know of things about the deal between Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) commercial arm Antrix and private firm Devas.

“The Antrix-Devas issue did not come to the Cabinet. These decisions are taken by the departments,” he told the Rajya Sabha.

However, the Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley, challenged the argument of the Prime Minister in the House.

“We are given to understand that the Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary, National Security Advisor and Cabinet Secretary are all privy to that decision,” he said.

He said it was difficult to believe that “while all this was happening, the PMO despite participating of all senior officials including the Minister of State was completely unaware that a valuable public asset is being placed in hands of an Indian company which is an arm of an American company and at an inadequate consideration and we were completely unaware of this.”

The Prime Minister told Parliament that his government would make all efforts to “clean our public life”.

“Unfortunate developments have taken place in the areas of telecom and CWG (Commonwealth Games), I assure the House there is nothing we will not do to clean our public life,” he said.

Antrix had signed a deal with Devas Multimedia in 2005 to build two satellites on which Devas would lease transponders in India. Bundled into the deal was 70 MHz of the scarce S-Band spectrum for Devas which was grossly underpriced priced at Rs 1000 crore.

ISRO ordered a review in December 2009 and subsequently, the Space Commission recommended its annulment on July 2, 2010, but the deal was not annulled.

Faced with sharp criticism and opposition attack, the union cabinet on Feb 17 decided to cancel the controversial S-band spectrum deal between the private firm Devas and Antrix.

Devas had earlier threatened with legal action if the deal was cancelled.

Devas Multimedia had been floated by former ISRO officials.