Corporates will share the fate of Raja in 2G scam?
By Binu Paul, SiliconIndia   |   Friday, 04 February 2011, 13:43 IST   |    14 Comments
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Corporates will share the fate of Raja in 2G scam?
Bangalore: After union communications minister Andimuthu Raja and two of his associates are arrested and sent to five-day custody, all eyes are on the probe direction wondering if the corporate heads who have a share in the scam will also have a same fate. The 2G scam, known to be the mother of all scams, had given a real shock to the people of India with its range and depth of involvement that included every single constituency - the business world, government, politicians and media. The scandal has exposed an ugly nexus of politicians, bureaucrats, corporates and media honchos, which might include many such Rajas, Radias, Tatas and Barkhas. It should be watched over in the next few days whether the CBI probe go beyond the arrest and prosecution of those top corporate who are clearly mentioned in the CAG report of having indulged in serious malpractices to get the inside information and violated every rules to win the 2G contracts. According to the CAG report, 85 firms who won the 2G contracts suppressed facts and gave fictitious papers to DoT. The companies who received the spectrum favors from Raja are under immense risk of being made a party in the corruption racket. Going to the details of the CAG report, it says that 2G spectrum was allocated to new players at throwaway prices. Six of Unitech group companies did not meet the eligible criteria in applying for 2G spectrum. Swan Telecom was given undue advantage and the Email ID of Swan Telecom was shown as that of a Reliance ADA group official. It also notes that spectrum allocated beyond contracted quantity to 9 firms including Bharti, Vodafone, BSNL, Idea, Aircel and Reliance. As against the law, Idea and Spice were not given spectrum based on their proposed merger plans. Uninor has denied receiving any favors and said it complied with all guidelines. Also, the CAG report said that DoT kept the spectrum pricing issue out of GoM's purview and Raja ignored the advice of the PM, FM and the Law Ministry. Noting that the spectrum is a rare national asset which should have been auctioned, it said the DoT did not follow the policy of first-come-first-serve. In a broad view, almost all the major telcos and many other corporations are involved in the scandal including Unitech Group, Swan Telecom, Loop Mobile, S Tel, Videocon, Reliance, Sistema Shyam Mobile (MTS), Vodafone, Tata Communications, Allianz Infra and Dishnet Wireless. CBI's probe direction should be clear in a few days in terms of its plans for those highly respected media persons such Barkha Dutt and Vir Sanghvi who lobbied for the minister and corporates. Question remains over whether the CBI investigation will include the former ministers, other politicians and bureaucrats who are directly or indirectly linked to the scandal which costs the nation 1.76 lakh crores. Finally, will the CBI take back the 2G licenses given against the law? Will the corporates and the lobbyists be booked under corruption charges? And many more questions need to be answered and hopefully will in the near future that would give the people a hope that democracy still exists in India.

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