Revision as of 06:45, 28 May 2015

CAG draft report nails Raja role in 2G scam

Josy Joseph

Times of India

New Delhi: The Comptroller and Auditor General has submitted damaging details of communications minister A Raja’s involvement in the controversial 2G spectrum allocation of January 2008. It has found his approval and signatures in almost all key decisions — from the one-hour window to operators to submit highvalue drafts to cutoff dates allegedly to suit select companies — resulting in nine companies getting spectrum.

The case concerns allegations that spectrum was allocated at vastly undervalued prices and some companies seemed to have an inside track on developments. CAG’s draft report and key documents are now with Raja’s ministry, awaiting explanations before the audit report can be finalized.

The documents were sent to the ministry in the third week of July. The ministry, quick to respond to CAG’s initial observations, has now sought six weeks to reply.

CAG has sent its entire set of key documents that allegedly prove Raja’s direct involvement in the decisions. The communications ministry, meanwhile, has got a law ministry opinion saying CAG could not question policy decisions.

Key BlackBerry meeting

Union home secretary G K Pillai is slated to meet a BlackBerry team on Monday to decide whether its messenger and enterprise services should be blocked after August 31. BlackBerry’s encypted services have stoked security fears. P 10 ‘Spectrum allocation at ’01 rates not justifiable’

New Delhi: The 2008 2G spectrum allocation ‘scam’ is unravelling. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has found communications and IT minister A Raja’s involvement in virtually all key decisions on allocation. While issues like first-come, first-served can be said to be policy decisions, this may not be enough for Raja to defend himself if details of the CAG audit accessed by TOI are anything to go by. Raja was not available for comment, despite calls and text messages to his phone from TOI. Raja’s approval to almost all controversial decisions of the 2G spectrum allocation include:

Personally approving issue of the now infamous press release on January 10, 2008, on first-come-first-served basis for allocation of licences, and giving operators just an hour’s window to deposit demand drafts between 3.30 and 4.30pm. The press release also advanced the cutoff date for submission of applications to September 25, 2007.

Instruction to issue the controversial press release was given on the same day, January 10. Raja approved and cleared the noting for the allocation of 2G spectrum to all nine companies.

Raja personally decided on various cutoff dates in 2007, and later in January 2008, which favoured select companies. First-come, first-served was never DoT policy for granting licences, contrary to Raja’s claims. It was policy only for release of spectrum after licences were granted.

In its own sober style, the CAG audit deepens the taint on allocation of 2G spectrum. The auditor has found that operators who benefited were able to arrange and submit high-value demand drafts within 45 minutes of the press release being uploaded.

Some of the drafts were made in Mumbai, showing that they seemed to have prior information about Raja making his ministry issue the controversial press release giving just an hour to potential bidders. In the normal course, they couldn’t have arranged such high-value drafts in such short time.

The CAG audit found the decision to alter 2007 TRAI recommendation that there be no cap on number of licences was never sent back to the regulator for approval.

TRAI chairman Pradip Baijal on the scam

The Times of India

Neeraj Chauhan

May 26, 2015

Ex-PM Manmohan Singh told me to go along on 2G: Baijal

In a self-published tell-all book, former Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) chairman Pradip Baijal has alleged that the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh warned him of "harm" if he didn't cooperate in the 2G case.

Baijal, who was probed for several years for his role in the 2G scam and disinvestment of properties (he was disinvestment secretary when Laxmi Vilas Palace Hotel was sold to Bharat Hotels in 2002), claims UPA II ruined his reputation to divert corruption charges against its coalition government.

Baijal writes that bureaucrats like him were "damned if you do, damned if you don't". "I had warned many in UPA II that all enquiries against me and others, would lead back to the PM, as he had indeed approved the actions of ministers and ministries in his government. This is precisely what was proved later. The actions of Dayanidhi Maran/(A) Raja/coal minister were approved by him, and he is equally culpable for all the losses computed by the CAG," says Baijal in his book 'The Complete Story of Indian Reforms: 2G, Power and Private Enterprise - A Practitioner's Diary', exclusively accessed by TOI.

In a chapter titled 'How the problems began', Baijal claims that he expressed his misgivings in 2004 to the then PM over Dayanidhi Maran being appointed as telecom minister as it was a clear case of conflict of interest since Maran was a broadcaster and TRAI had been appointed as a broadcasting regulator in 2004. ".......the PM dismissed the concerns with the specious argument that there was no conflict of interest since TRAI was an independent regulator and I&B and telecom were separate ministries," states Baijal, adding that "Singh appointed two committees in his office - one headed by him and the other a subordinate committee, headed by principal secretary to PM. Maran protested against these committees, and directed his officers not to attend them".

Baijal claims Maran told him that he was "Prime Minister, Telecom" and would take all decisions on telecom. "He warned that I would come to severe harm if I did not comply with his instructions. He was proved right, since I did face severe hardships later," says Baijal.

On Maran allegedly instructing Baijal at their first meeting after taking over not to submit the Unified Service Licensing recommendations of the previous NDA government, Baijal writes, "...The PM also told me to cooperate with my minister in the coalition government he headed, since non-cooperation could compromise his government".

In a separate chapter, Baijal refers to the alleged warning from Singh: "They (CBI) had warned me in each case (cases related to 2G scam and disinvestments) that I would be harmed if I didn't cooperate. Incidentally, this was exactly what the eminent economist Prime Minister (Manmohan Singh) had told me would happen if I did not cooperate in their scheme of things in the 2G case."

Baijal claims he didn't listen to Singh and Maran on the report/recommendation (on Unified Licensing). While praising the NDA government for the measures it took to reform the telecom sector in 2003 in the book, he says the Unified License approved by the NDA government increased competition in India, and brought down mobile tariffs. "Had I agreed to their (Manmohan Singh and Maran) suggestions and not given the report, the 2003 special regime would have continued and UPA would have held NDA or TRAI (including me) responsible for the 2G scam. The PM would not have accepted his responsibility, just as he shirked responsibility in Coalgate scam," adds Baijal.

Baijal also talks about a meeting between industrialist Ratan Tata and Maran when he was minister of telecom. "In 2004, after a routine meeting, Ratan Tata told me that he was being threatened by Dayanidhi Maran that unless he accepted the merger of Tata Sky with Sun TV, he would ruin him. Ratan Tata refused to cooperate," claims Baijal.

Baijal also alleges that UPA government removed important files from TRAI and telecom ministry to hide its wrongdoings when scandal hit the headlines in 2009-2010.