New Delhi:
The Supreme Court decision to cancel 122 telecom licenses issued in 2008 by A Raja has shattered "the entire credibility of the decision-making process of this government," said the BJP today.
The opposition party said the Prime Minister must take responsibility for letting Mr Raja follow a process described as "unconstitutional and arbitrary" by the Supreme Court. "The Finance Minister is the custodian of the public exchequer," said the BJP's Arun Jaitley. He said that the consequences of the damaging policies of the UPA have led to "a creation of a global no-confidence across the globe."
The BJP says that the government must accept collective responsibility for the telecom swindle. "We would like to ask the PM, would you now take some action against Mr Chidambaram or will you continue to defend him?" asked BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad. "Will Sonia Gandhi speak now (on the scam)? She is the biggest leader in this government," he added.
The verdict comes in the midst of elections for Uttar Pradesh and four other states. The Congress has been deluged by a wave of major financial scandals in the last year. The telecom scam - believed to be India's largest swindle - helped provoke a national outrage against graft, and converted anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare into a national icon.
The Supreme Court has today refused to order the CBI to investigate the role of P Chidambaram, who was Finance Minister in 2008 when Mr Raja allegedly helped ineligible companies to get licenses and spectrum at throwaway prices. The court said that decision should be taken by Judge OP Saini, who is handling the trial of Mr Raja and others in the telecom scam. The request for a formal CBI inquiry against Mr Chidambaram had been made by Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy. He has also separately petitioned Judge Saini's court to make Mr Chidambaram a co-accused in the case. Mr Swamy and opposition parties say that Mr Chidambaram endorsed Mr Raja's decisions and that as Finance Minister, he allowed inexplicably low prices of licenses and valuable airwaves.
Mr Raja chose not to auction spectrum and licenses. Instead, he followed a first-come-first-serve policy - this procedure had been introduced by the NDA when it was in power before the UPA, and has been approved by both the UPA and the regulatory body for telecom. It was Mr Raja's alleged manipulation of the rules that allowed ineligible companies to get out-of-turn licenses. Some of them - Unitech and Swan - then diluted equity by bringing in foreign partners with massive profits. Experts say that new players in the telecom field were therefore able to make a quick buck thanks to Mr Raja.
Those whose licenses have been cancelled today include Uninor and Idea. Stocks of companies like Unitech and DB Realty have tanked. But rivals have benefitted. Older players like Bharti-Airtel who got licenses before 2008 saw stock prices shooting up.