Here is the case of the sale of 2G spectrum by the Telecom Ministry, headed by DMKs A M Raja, one of the most corrupt ministers. His and his party's take in this deal. A paltry few Thousand Crore Indian Rupees.
- Department of Telecom (DoT) gives licences without Cabinet approving the first-come-first-served condition
- Licences were granted in 2008 at a rate fixed in 2001
- The cut-off date was dubiously revised from October 1 to September 25
- Real estate companies like Swan and Unitech are the major beneficiaries
- Swan got licence for Rs 1,537 cr and within weeks offloaded 45 per cent of its shares to UAE-based Etisalat for Rs 4,500 cr
- Unitech got licence for Rs 1,650 cr. Within weeks, it also offloaded 60 per cent of shares to Norwegian Telenor for Rs 6,200 cr.
- As Telenor is operating in Pakistan and Bangaldesh, the Home Ministry raised objections
- Raja had arm-twisted BSNL to enter into an unprecedented Intra-Circle Roaming Agreement with Swan. This was done just a few days before the Etisalat deal. This deal with BSNL helped Swan to boost its share price
The in-house investigation by the Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) had pinpointed “malafide motives and blatant corruption” by Raja’s own men — former Telecom Secretary Siddharth Behura, former Private Secretary RK Chandolia (currently Economic Adviser to DoT) and DDG of Access Service AK Srivastava — in the dubious spectrum allocation, resulting in a loss of more than Rs 60,000 crore to the public exchequer, said sources.
Despite the allegations against Raja, and despite the PM not wanting him in the Cabinet, Karunanidhi put his put down and arm twisted Sonia to include him in the same Ministry. Within 24 hours of Raja’s second entry in Telecom, Delhi High Court slammed the spectrum allocation and observed that “spectrum was sold like cinema tickets”.
But no one is indicted and no one will be punished. People get away if they have the political backing.
