New Delhi:
Even before it was made public in its entirety, the report by Justice Shivraj Patil on the 2G scam provoked a new round of polemics between the government and the opposition.
Earlier this week, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal read out excerpts from the report that suggested the mistakes that eventually led to India's biggest scam began when the NDA was in power. Arun Shourie, who was the NDA's Telecom Minister, in turn accused the report of being biased, misleading, and a "fabrication by Kapil Sibal."
The report, released formally today on a government website, in fact indicts both the NDA and the UPA. It lists over 50 officials who manipulated or broke rules to favour certain companies first when Arun Shourie headed the Telecom ministry, and later when Dayanidhi Maran and A Raja took over after the UPA came to power.
Read the full report here (File size: 76 MB) The officials indicted have been judged on the basis of the documents and official records that were made available to Justice Patil by the Department of Telecommunications. They were not asked to present their version of events.
The 150-page document dissects the role played by Pradeep Baijal, who served as Chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) from 2003 to 2006. Mr Baijal's term therefore began during the NDA, and was completed when the UPA was in power. Mr Baijal allegedly worked with Vinod Vaish, who was Telecom Secretary in 2003, to thwart government policy on how spectrum should be priced. While the cabinet had approved of multi-stage bidding or a process of auction of spectrum, Mr Baijal and Mr Vaish allegedly misrepresented what the government had favoured, and facilitated much lower rates for spectrum for companies they were aligned with.
After his term as TRAI chief, Mr Baijal went to work for Niira Radia, the controversial PR executive who has been caught on tape lobbying for mobile network licenses for some of her clients. The transcripts of Ms Radia's conversations are a significant part of the CBI's inquiry into the 2G scam.