{"id":20489,"date":"2013-04-22T19:42:06","date_gmt":"2013-04-22T23:42:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=20489"},"modified":"2013-04-23T00:05:07","modified_gmt":"2013-04-23T04:05:07","slug":"former-telecom-minister-a-raja-in-112-page-statement-implicates-indian-pm-manmohan-singh-in-massive-2-g-spectrum-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=20489","title":{"rendered":"Former Telecom Minister A.Raja in 112 Page Statement Implicates Indian PM Manmohan Singh in Massive 2 G Spectrum Scam"},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/p>\n

Shalini Singh<\/strong><\/p>\n

In his 112-page written statement to the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probing the 2G scam, the former Telecom Minister and prime accused, A. Raja, has said he personally met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh several times between November 2007 and July 2008 \u2014 the period when the scam was perpetrated \u2014 to keep him informed of all 2G-related decisions, and the Prime Minister agreed with him.<\/p>\n

On Page 72, while challenging the JPC\u2019s draft report and the CBI\u2019s allegations that Mr. Raja had \u201cmisled\u201d the Prime Minister, he says: \u201cThis allegation has been made by the CBI without even recording the statement of the Hon\u2019ble PM. On what basis do they say he was misled?
\n
\nI hope the JPC will not commit the same blunder; if they wish to draw any conclusion on this issue, it is mandatory to record my statement and the statement of the Hon\u2019ble PM.\u201d But the draft report has already reached that conclusion.<\/p>\n

Mr. Raja then goes on to give details of his meetings, letters and conversations with the Prime Minister, several of which are not in the public domain.<\/p>\n

Mr. Raja claims that apart from seven letters between November 2, 2007, and July 2, 2010, \u201cI had several personal discussions with the Hon\u2019ble PM on telecom issues throughout my tenure and particularly in the period from November 2007\u2013January 2008.\u201d He further provides occasions and venues where such meetings took place. \u201cThese would happen on the side of Cabinet meetings or separately at his office\/residence.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Prime Minister has made specific statements on his discussions with Mr. Raja at a TV Editors press conference and in Parliament in February 2011, but has not disclosed either the occurrence or the details of these meetings, save one held among Mr. Raja, Mr. Chidambaram, and himself on July 4, 2008, seven months after the scam broke out.<\/p>\n

Met PM a week before scam <\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr. Raja says that after his December 26, 2007 letter, which detailed the change in the first-come first-served (FCFS) policy, \u201cI met the Hon\u2019ble PM in the first week of January 2008, and this issue was again discussed, and he agreed with the proposed course of action of the DoT.\u201d If correct, the meeting would have occurred within a week prior to the award of Letters of Intent for 2G licences on January 10, 2008, and supports documents that show that on the Prime Minister\u2019s request of December 29, 2007, Pulok Chatterji, Secretary, and T.K.A. Nair, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, had discussed and endorsed Mr. Raja\u2019s modification of the FCFS policy in PMO files through notings on 1, 6 and 7, January 2008. This was highlighted in a news report, \u2018New papers show PMO analysed and agreed with Raja\u2019s actions before 2G scam,\u2019 published in The Hindu on March 18, 2013.<\/p>\n

Continuing with his attack on the contention that the Prime Minister was misled, Mr. Raja says: \u201cDoT officers were in touch with PMO regularly, without even involving me, as seen by the file notings of the PMO itself.\u201d On July 24, 2012, CBI officials deposed before the JPC that they had not gone through the PMO files. The CBI stated that it approached a \u201cSection Officer\u201d in the PMO to check the \u201cauthenticity\u201d of certain documents.<\/p>\n

In the statement, Mr. Raja details instances and the importance of his face-to-face meetings with the Prime Minister and the then Law Minister, H.R. Bhardwaj, whose advice to take the 2G spectrum issue to the Empowered Group of Ministers (eGoM), had been rejected by Mr. Raja as \u201ctotally out of context.\u201d<\/p>\n

Citing \u201cseveral interactions\u201d he had with the Prime Minister and the Law Minister, he says: \u201cIf either of them had desired that the eGoM should consider this matter, they would have told me and I would have acted accordingly. However, neither of them ever made this suggestion, and rather they fully understood and endorsed my course of action.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pointing to his re-appointment as Telecom Minister after the 2009 election, Mr. Raja says: \u201c\u2026surely if he [the Prime Minister] felt that I misled him or offended him in any manner, my appointment would not have happened.\u201d
\nCOURTESY:THE HINDU<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Shalini Singh In his 112-page written statement to the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probing the 2G scam, the former Telecom Minister and prime accused, A. Raja, has said he personally met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh several times between November 2007 and July 2008 \u2014 the period when the scam was perpetrated \u2014 to keep …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Former Telecom Minister A.Raja in 112 Page Statement Implicates Indian PM Manmohan Singh in Massive 2 G Spectrum Scam’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20489"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20489"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20520,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20489\/revisions\/20520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}