The Hindu Business Line : Clearing the air on 2G Spectrum

The allotment of 2G Spectrum on First-Come-First-Served (FCFS) basis by Mr A. Raja, when he was the Minister of Communications and Information Technology in the previous UPA Government, is unnecessarily being allowed to turn into a festering sore for want of proper handling.

The result is that the whole country has been led to believe that the Minister has knowingly allotted it at rock-bottom entry price to undeserving companies which were not in the communications field, thereby enabling them to make a killing by selling them in the market, the whole process causing an enormous loss of anywhere between Rs 10,000 and Rs 20,000 crore to the Government.

Issue of licences

The Minister’s plea is that he was only following the FCFS mode that had already been adopted by previous (including NDA) Governments and that the entry price of Rs 1,651 crore is as fixed by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in 2001. He has pointed out that as many as 51 licences had been issued on the same basis when Messrs Arun Shourie and Dayanidhi Maran were Ministers. He has also claimed that in all this his Ministry was only following the regulator’s guidelines (although this was disputed by Mr Shourie, in the course of the discussion on the subject in Rajya Sabha on July 27).

No answers have been forthcoming to the questions on the lack of experience of use of spectrum by the selected firms, the alleged sale of the allotted spectrum in the market for a huge profit and the outcome of any inquiry made into it, and the reason for lack of diligence in not referring to TRAI the fee, fixed nine years ago, for upward revision, before taking up the allotment.

The failure of the Prime Minister or the Leader of either House to be seen coming to the rescue of the Minister by providing a convincing explanation to clear the air has had the effect of further tarnishing the reputation of the Minister. If the Government has a good case (otherwise Mr Raja would not have been given the same berth as in UPA-I), the Prime Minister himself should come forward to make a statement and close the matter. This is the least he owes to his colleague who is being subjected to almost daily vilification on this score.

Great pity

It is at times like these that one sadly misses Jawaharlal Nehru. He was invariably present in one or the other House of Parliament on occasions when important issues of whatever Ministry were coming up either during question hour or as resolutions and motions.

He took a holistic and not fragmented view of the working of the Government, and as the Prime Minister, he regarded it his duty and obligation to help Parliament have a correct understanding of the implications of matters coming up before it. He did not hesitate to supplement the reply of the Minister concerned and place full information at the earliest opportunity before Parliament and the people. I have not seen him in all the four years I worked with him refusing to make available any document or report requested for by Members in the two Houses.

In the case of 2G Spectrum allotment, taking note of the concerns raised, he would have prepared himself thoroughly and come and sat in the House in the very first instance and if he found the Minister was not carrying the House with him, he would have himself intervened right then and there and put the whole controversy to rest. What a great pity that a party which prides itself on such a lineage manages to muck up things by its disregard of the best practices of Nehru!

B. S. RAGHAVAN

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