Raja: Cartel of telecom players behind 2G scam

26 July, 2011

Trying to wash his hands off in the 2G spectrum scam, former Telecom Minister A Raja said today that a cartel of telecom players is behind the scandal. Raja told a Delhi court today that his only fault was not to auction the spectrum.

FORMER TELECOM Minister A Raja, who is imprisoned for almost six months for his involvement in the 2G spectrum scam, told a Delhi court today that a cartel of telecom operators were responsible for the scandal. These operators did not want new telecom players to come into existence, he said. The DMK MP further admitted that he too had committed a mistake, adding that his only mistake was to open floodgates for the operators.

Raja's counsel Sushil Kumar made the submissions before Special Judge O P Saini today, at the same time pointing out that his client was not involved in the scandal.

The lawmaker told the court that when he was appointed Telecom Minister in 2007, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) proposed that no limitation should be imposed on the number of applicants for spectrum licence. Since he found no harm in the proposal he accepted it. As a result, around 575 applications were submitted at the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) for the licence. However, Raja only accepted 232 applications, which was his biggest mistake.

Defending his decision not to auction the 2G spectrum, Raja said that he was following what the policies of his predecessors and the NDA government. The way the 2G case is progressing, foreign investors are losing trust in India, which is hampering the economy, he added.

The lawmaker further urged the court that then finance minister P Chidambaram should be made a witness in the case. Raja, 47, noted that the PM and then finance minister were aware about the dilution of equities to foreign firms by Swan Telecom and Unitech Wireless. Raja clarified that he was not trying to drag the current home minister and the PM into the case, and that his only aim was to bring out the truth.

Raja also urged the court to consider his release, saying that his judicial custody was “illegal detention”.