Chennai:
Former telecom minister A Raja, who is accused in the 2G spectrum scam, has said that he never misled the Prime Minister. "He did not know the telecom policy," Mr Raja told NDTV amid a controversy over two books that imply that the Congress-led government was riddled with scams because Manmohan Singh had no control over his ministers.
Mr Raja, who was jailed for allegedly using his term as telecom minister to accept bribes in return for granting cellular network licenses to ineligible companies, is running for Parliament from the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu.
"I did not take the PM for a ride," he told NDTV. "The National Telecom Policy of 1999 doesn't allow auction of spectrum. It says spectrum should be used to take telecommunication to all. The Prime Minister doesn't know the national telecom policy. I wrote to him saying Mr Prime Minister even you can't change the policy. If you want to travel against it you have to design a new policy and cabinet has to ratify. He sent an unsigned note and I replied."
The DMK leader has been accused of giving away precious 2G spectrum licences at throwaway rates to select companies, instead of going through a more transparent bidding process. The national auditor alleges that this cost the government thousands of crores.
Memoirs by the Prime Minister's former media adviser Sanjaya Baru and former Coal Secretary PC Parakh portray Manmohan Singh as a well-meaning person who failed to prevent scams on his watch and allowed himself to be overruled by his ministers and the Congress party.
The Prime Minister's Office and the Congress have both slammed the books as "baseless and mischievous". The Congress has called them part of propaganda by political rivals in the middle of the national election.