New Delhi:
The Congress may be in overdrive cleaning its own house, but its ally the DMK, and in particular IT Minister A Raja, continue to cause the UPA government huge embarrassment.
A day after NDTV reported that the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had found that the 2G spectrum auction caused the government losses of around Rs 1.76 lakh crore, more details are emerging about what the damning report says.
Slamming A Raja, the CAG report says, "The Honourable Minister of Communication & IT, for no apparent logical or valid reasons, ignored the advice of Ministry of Law and Ministry of Finance, avoided the deliberations of the Telecom Commission to allocate 2G spectrum, a scarce finite national asset at less than its true value on flexible criteria and procedures adopted to benefit a few operators."
In its severe indictment, the CAG report says:
- The Department of Telecom did not follow its own guidelines on eligibility conditions.
- It arbitrarily changed the cut-off date for applications after the original cut-off date.
- It altered conditions of the First Come First Served procedure
- It gave unfair advantage to certain companies over others.
- It created an environment not "transparent and fair."
- It issued new licences for 2G spectrum at 2001 prices in 2008.
- It flouted all rules, procedures to be followed in a parliamentary democratic set-up.
This puts the Congress, which has been in intense clean-up mode this week, getting rid of tainted office-holders post in haste, in a spot.
While officially the party and the government have said let the CAG report go through a certain constitutional procedure before it can comment, Congress spokesperson Jayanti Natrajan also pointed out that the party has to respect "coalition dharma." (
Watch: 'Have to respect coalition dharma': Congress on Raja)
That coalition dharma, party leaders say would not allow the Congress to deal with ministers belonging to allied parties the same way that it would its own. They say it is really up to the DMK to take action.
The UPA is acutely aware, however, that it has to deal with an aggressive Opposition that is using every possible stick to beat it with. The Raja issue rocked Parliament today with both Houses of Parliament being adjourned twice. The Opposition has demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) inquiry.
In the Upper House, Leader of the Opposition Arun Jaitley said during Question Hour that there had been "unprecedented rise in cases of corruption in high places." He also referred to the alleged scam in allocation of second generation or 2G spectrum to new telecom companies, reports of corruption in the CWG 2010 and irregularities in Adarsh Housing society in Mumbai. (
Watch: Don't treat corruption as inner party issue, says Jaitley |
Read: Opposition stalls Parliament over 2G scam)
The DMK's big rival Jayalalithaa of the AIADMK, has hit out at the party for what she calls shielding Raja in the 2G scam. She has written to President Pratibha Patil asking that Raja be sacked. Jayalalitha said, "Raja's scam, perpetrated with just a few signatures over a few hours, outclasses the British loot by 200 times! If this money was available with the Central Government, we need not have gone for the controversial increases in petroleum prices that have broken the back of India's middle class. Houses worth Rs 1 lakh each could have been built and distributed free to as many as 2 crore poor, homeless Indians. The Ganga could have been cleaned..." (
Read: Raja has looted India more than the British: Jayalalithaa)