2G scam verdict once again got BJP in awkward situation; this was Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s election propaganda. He and his party workers were hell bent on proving how UPA-II was corrupt. A special court acquitted 19 accused, including former telecom minister A Raja and DMK leader Kanimozhi. Who will define Justice and Injustice? We, the people of India, do not understand the cumbrous rules, one day we hear… “You are guilty of stealing money” and another day we also hear “you are a free man, you have committed no crime”. Be it BJP, UPA or others, no political party is clean in India but still the mudslinging of our politicians carries us away. Congress and DMK should be happy, as they are freed from corruption. That will impress the people in next election.
It is giving an uncertainty that whether the 2G cases itself were wrong or all the documents were improperly given by the CBI or the case itself was politically created. It has become a joke that any politically powerful party can always win the government. I think politics itself will save the politicians and the public has to be saved only by the God? Anyways, there is no point in criticising the judiciary; Instead, BJP should clarify to the nation why it had raised the 2G scam issue in a big way, after a special court acquitted all the accused in the case. Those who raised the allegation of scam are now ruling the country. We trusted the chest beating of our Prime Minister and his promises, his acquisitions and allegations. He successfully created anger against Congress and UPA among voters, but what we realised in these three years is that, everything was just eyewash.
The CBI had alleged that there was a loss of Rs 30,984 crore to the exchequer in the allocation of licenses for the 2G spectrums, which were scrapped by the Supreme Court on February 2, 2012. Now the same CBI has failed to prove the accusation. Is this deliberately done on the instructions of BJP supremo? We all know why Modi met DMK boss! DMK and BJP will be together in all the coming elections. No surprise! All corrupts including Pawars are now friends with BJP? So, the Bharatiya Janata Party won the 2014 general elections and Narendra Modi rode in to Delhi on a white charger as the scourge of corruption cases —the mother of all cases being the 2G scam.
So A Raja, Kanimozhi and a host of telecom executives and promoters got a clean chit as the court virtually ruled that there was no 2G scam as the CBI managed to provide no prosecutable evidence to the court. As Ambani displayed his amnesia — he confirmed his signatures on many company documents but feigned ignorance about decisions he put his signatures on —questions should also be asked to the-then Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai, who mysteriously uncovered scam after scam in the telecom and coal sectors. Remember the figure of 1.76 lakh crore which he declared was what the 2G scam cost to the country? Vinod Rai should shoulder a portion of the blame along with the CBI for devastating the telecom sector.
Will Rai answer for his “notional loss”? Rai, like other former government officials such as national security advisor Ajit Doval may have aided the electoral advent of the BJP. Normally, post-retirement CAG chiefs do not accept any sinecures. Rai broke the norm as Modi appointed him to head the Banks Board Bureau. He is also involved in running the Board of Cricket Control in India.
In the run-up to the 2014 elections, Modi latched onto the coal and telecom scams and the BJP made UPA’s crony corruption an issue. It seems that corruption was yet another “jumla” for Modi as the so-called cronies targeted by BJP are alive, kicking and flourishing under him. Anil Ambani who has defaulted on his loans, both domestic and international, has been given a plum contract in the Rafale defence deal. Amit Shah’s son was exposed in a scam, Vyapam to chikki, there are many scams to BJP’s credit but these people conveniently misguided people showing fingers at 2G scam.
There is no material on record to show that A Raja was mother lode of conspiracy in the instant case. There is also no evidence of his no-holds-barred immersion in any wrongdoing, conspiracy or corruption. There is no evidence on record produced before the court indicating any criminality in the acts allegedly committed by the accused persons relating to fixation of cut-off date, manipulation of first-come-first-served policy, allocation of spectrum to dual technology applicants, ignoring ineligibility of Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd (STPL) and Unitech group companies, non-revision of entry fee and transfer of Rs 200 crore to Kalaignar TV (P) Limited as illegal gratification. Many facts recorded in the chargesheet are factually incorrect, like finance secretary strongly recommending revision of entry fee, deletion of a clause of draft LOI by A Raja, recommendations of TRAI for revision of entry fee etc. A trial spanning seven years, 155 witnesses, more than 80,000 pages of documents, high-profile accused and massive media attention: that was the 2G scam.
Now the question is who are the responsible people behind the scam? Indian Judiciary knows better I guess. What a mockery of justice, the whole judicial exercise has now become questionable for the approach in determining this shocking verdict. If such lapses, as happened in the handling of the 2G sale had occurred in a reputed private sector organisation, where incompetence of people in power resulted in the loss of billions of rupees, they would certainly be behind bars for failing in their fiduciary duties towards shareholders. Indian judicial system has a long way to go to be seen as delivering ‘justice’.
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