The 2G Spectrum Scam Story

How did it start?

On November, 2008, Subramanian Swamy wrote to Prime Minister

Manmohan Singh and followed it up with four more letters seeking
sanction to prosecute A. Raja in regards to 2G telecom spectrum political
corruption scam.

When the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh didn't take any decision
Swamy went to Supreme Court. On 27 November 2010 Subramanian
Swamy anounced that he will file a criminal case against former union
minister

Raja in the 2G Spectrum Scam before the Special Court for Corruption
Cases in connection with the charges of irregularities in 2G spectrum
allocation
What Happened?

2G licenses issued to private telecom players at throwaway prices in 2008

CAG: Spectrum scam has cost the government Rs. 1.76 lakh crore

CAG: Rules and procedures flouted while issuing licenses.

Person accused is the Telecom minister : A.Raja

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) said it has submitted
to the government the report on the 2G spectrum allotment that is presumed to
have caused a revenue loss of up to Rs. 1.76 lakh crore

CAG Report

CAG has accused the telecom ministry for undervaluing 2G spectrum,

sold to new players in 2008, and held that the allotment price was not
 realistic, which has caused a revenue loss of up to Rs. 176,700 crore to
the government.

The report is also believed to have castigated telecom minister A Raja for
ignoring the advice of finance and law ministries on allocation of 2G
spectrum to benefit a few operators.

It is also believed to have criticised telecom regulator TRAI standing as a

helpless spectator when its recommendations were being ignored or
misused.

The CAG report said the price at which the spectrum was alloted in 2008
was based on 2001 prices, which was quite low and has resulted in a loss
to the government exchequer.

Also, no proper auction method was followed and no bids were taken to
sell out the spectrum.

Who All Benefited from This Scam ?

2G spectrum was allocated beyond contracted quantity to 9 firms including

Bharti, Vodafone, Idea, BSNL, Reliance, Aircel," the report said.Niira Radia is
said to be involved.Read her details.
Department of Telecommunications (DoT) circumvented the rules to help Swan
Telecom, which effectively acted as a front for Reliance Telecommunications.

The charges in the CAG report are that Swan should not have been considered
for a license because Reliance Communications held 10.7% stake in Swan - and
according to the rules, a telecom operator cannot own more than 10% stake in
another telecom company operating in the same service area.

"Email ID of Swan Telecom was shown as that of a Reliance ADA group

official

Another big beneficiary of the 2G spectrum allocation was Unitech

Wireless, which had no experience in the telecommunication sector.
After Unitech got the license for a throwaway price of Rs. 1,661 crore,
it sold 60 per cent stake to Telenor Asia for a whopping Rs. 6,200
crore.

Politicians involved

A. Raja, the Ex-Minister of Communications and Information Technology

who was the minister when the controversial second round of spectrum
allocations took place.

Arun Shourie, the minister for Telecom during 2003 in the previous BJP
regime.

Pramod Mahajan, the minister for Telecom between 1999 and 2003.
 Bureaucrats involved

Siddhartha Behura, former telecom secretary who served in the DOT at

the time of the 2G allocation.

Pradip Baijal, a bureaucrat who is alleged to have implemented policies

that favored certain Telecom companies when he was heading the TRAI.

R K Chandolia, private secretary of Raja during UPA-I when the licences

were awarded. He was an Indian Economic Service officer of the 1984
batch cadre.

Corporations involved

Unitech Group a real estate company entering the telecom industry with
its 2G bid; sold 60% of its company stake at huge profit to Telenor after
buying licensing (Including land values properties for towers)

Swan Telecom sold 45% of its company stake at huge profit to Emirates
Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat) after buying licensing

Loop Mobile

Videocon Telecommunications Limited

S Tel

Reliance Communications

Sistema Shyam Mobile (MTS) Sistema Mobile Russia

Tata Communications

Vodafone Essar

Dishnet Wireless

Allianz Infra
 Media persons and lobbyists involved

Nira Radia, a former airline entrepreneur turned corporate lobbyist

whose conversations with politicians and corporate entities were
recorded by the government authorities and leaked creating the Nira
Radia tapes controversy.
Barkha Dutt, an NDTV journalist alleged to have lobbied for A. Raja's
appointment as minister.
Vir Sanghvi, a Hindustan Times editor alleged to have edited articles
to reduce blame in the Nira Radia tapes.

Petitioners

Subramaniam Swamy, activist lawyer and politician, whose letters to the

Prime Minister demanding action and affidavits and cases in the Supreme
Court brought the issue into the public limelight.

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, a journalist who was one among the very first to
write on the irregularities in the awarding of 2G spectrum allocation by
the Telecom Ministry. He is also one of the petitioners in the 2G PIL
currently being heard in the Supreme court.

Prashant Bhushan, on behalf of the Centre for Public Interest Litigation.

Anil Kumar, on behalf of the civil society organisationTelecom Watchdog

Others:Several eminent people like former chief election commissioners

J.M. Lyngdoh, T.S. Krishnamurthy and N. Gopalaswami and former
central vigilance commissioner (CVC) P. Shankar are also petitioners in
the suits filed by civil society groups

What happened after the Scam?

The stand-off between the government and the Opposition over 2G scam
continues. The Opposition wants a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC)
to investigate the 2G scam.
 Parliament has not functioned at all this winter session - the Opposition
says it won't let the House get to work till a JPC is announced.

Response to the Scam

In early November 2010 Jayalalithaa accused the Tamil Nadu state chief
minister M Karunanidhi of protecting A. Raja from corruption charges
and called for A. Raja's resignation. By mid November A. Raja resigned.

In mid November the comptroller Vinod Rai issued show-cause notices to

Unitech, S Tel, Loop Mobile, Datacom (Videocon), and Etisalat to
respond to his assertion that all of the 85 licenses granted to these
companies did not have the up-front capital required at the time of the
application and were in other ways illegal.

Some media sources have speculated that these companies will receive
large fines but not have their licenses revoked, as they are currently
providing some consumer service.

In response to the various allegations , the Govt of India has replaced the
then incumbent Telecom minister ,A Raja with Kapil Sibal who has taken
up this charge in addition to being the Union minister for Human
Resources Development.

Mr Sibal contends that the "notional" losses quoted are a result of

erroneous calculations and insists that the actual losses are nil.

The CBI conducted raids on Raja and four other telecom officials -
former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura, Raja's personal secretary R K
Chandolia, member telecom K Sridhar and DoT deputy director general A
K Srivastava on 8 December 2010.

Raja, Behura and Chandolia were arrested on Feb 2nd 2011.

Niira Radia also seems to be involved in big way with the 2G spectrum
scam.
 DMK party chief Karunanithi also accused of being involved in scam by
Swamy.

Online community makes fun of the Scam

.
This, is News BY MANOJ KEWALRAMANI:-

This, he said with a determined look, before pausing for a moment. Is news,
he
continued, as the screen faded into darkness.
Thats as honest as one can be these days, I thought, with the image of Ryan
Seacrest
hosting E! News still in my head.
Perhaps its a reflection of just how cynical I have become or perhaps its just a
measure
of how the trade has evolved.
Yes its a trade; its always been one. All it has done is metamorphosed from the
practice
of a skill to the far more realistic you-scratch-my-back-and-I-scratch-yours
stage.
Nah, thats a dirty phrase. It just trivializes the effort that goes into sustaining
the
mystique of morality while manufacturing opinion.
Its an art; it always was and still is. Its an art to howl aloud clichs like your
views
your call your channel your paper and pretend to be your conscience
while
still selling you a product that you dont even know you are consuming.
Truly, it is an art, an art that perhaps those in PR circles would describe as
environment
management. And with the way we live today, the degradation of the
environment
with each passing day should hardly come as a surprise to us.
No money, no news, is how noted journalist P Sainath described the scenario
during
the Maharashtra elections last year.
Painting a grim picture, he added: The game has moved from the petty
personal corruption
of a handful of journalists to the structured extraction of huge sums of money
by media outfits.
But thats just the tip of the iceberg an iceberg that perhaps began melting
publicly
when the cash-for-votes scam hit Parliament.
As journo after journo and channel after channel debated the new low that the
legisla2G
Spectrum Scam 01/09/11 8:01 AM
http://www.2gscam.in/post/9551275889/this-is-news Page 2 of 3
ture had sunk to, there was hardly any discussion about the behind the scenes
tapes
and recordings that seemed to exist but didnt see the light of day.
Political favour you presume? Well most certainly. But a better answer can
perhaps
be found in the convoluted books of accounts and the equity structure or even
something
as simple and transparent as the advertising contracts.
Still not convinced, youd probably scoff and parrot the old adage of everybody
needing
to run a business one way or the other. Whats more, being a little stingy with
the
truth is a bargain that maybe you can live with.
Fair enough, perhaps we can; and perhaps sometimes its better for the health of
a
crumbling edifice, that is our system and our faith in it, to not let the hammer
strike it
with full force.
But then, thats acceptable if only the rot had decided to limit itself till where it
was.
In reality though, the spectrum (pun intended) it covers is far wider and far
deeper.
While the Telecom Minister may hang on to his chair, courtesy the limitations
of
coalition politics or rather the dire need of those who want him there, the real
question
is how did he, with a murky track-record, get the job in the first place?
By now, of course we are all familiar with the tale. Boys meets girl. Boys hire
girl. Girl
pushes their agenda through a complex mix of favours and persuasion. A few
hiccups
later, the Raja is seated on the much-vaunted throne. Its just poetic justice how
the story of the great Telecom battle of 2009 was narrated through taped
conversations.
Its a familiar script, but the devil lies in the minor details. In that story, this may
have
been a miniscule sub-plot, but in the larger scheme of affairs, it is anything but a
small deal when noted journalists get named in confidential reports for lobbying
to
get the right man in the right place.
And thats just how the system works. You cover not at the behest of public
good,
freedom, accountability and maintaining a check on the way things are. You
cover as
per the requirements of your balance sheet, or at least the ones who are keeping
it
balanced.
Thats what it generally means when the bold Exclusive flashes on your
screen.
Theres a price to be paid for such exclusivity. In our world today, that price is
ethics
and independence.
The last time I somberly told a journalist friend of mine about this fact, he
turned to
me cherry-faced, accusing me of pedaling sanctimonious bullshit that doesnt
survive
the test of reality.
I didnt have an answer then, but I do today. Read through the article again and
then
tell me who it is thats being real and who it is that bellows holier than thou crap
like
trust, honesty, credibility, truth, 247.

CAG report on 2G scam:-

The Supreme Court of India has rapped the premier

investigating agency, Central Bureau
of Investigation (CBI), for conducting a slipshod investigation
into the 2G Spectrum
Scam. The Apex court took the CBI to task by stating that the
agency was dragging
its feet in the investigation.
The SC is hearing two petitions in the matter. The first was
filed by an NGO, Centre
for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), and the second filed by
Janata Party chief Subramanian
Swamy. Swamy had challenged the Delhi High Court order
that rejected his
plea to direct the PM to grant sanction to prosecute Telecom
Minister A Raja.
CPIL has placed before the Supreme Court two draft reports
of the Comptroller and
Auditor General (CAG), which pointed out that the 2G scam
has caused a loss of over
1 lakh crore to the exchequer. 2GScam.in brings you some
important extracts of the
CAG draft reports, which directly points a finger of suspicion
towards Raja for alleged
irregularities and favoritism in the allotment of spectrum.
Despite all agencies having full knowledge of scarcity and
under pricing of spectrum,
the entry fee for issue of licenses continued to be pegged at
2001 rates even
in 2007 without delinking and independently pricing
spectrum through a market
mechanism, when the entire scenario in the telecom sector
had transformed
in the meanwhile.
Ignoring the advice of the Pr