Dr. O. P. Sudrania
India has been rocked from time and again especially after the UPA II came in power again in 2009. There has been a spate of scandals involving even the satrap’s office viz. PMO (Prime Minister’s Office). The magnitude of fiscal involvements are mind boggling, to the tune of lacs of crores of rupees which could effectively help feed the millions of hungry and give shelter to the homeless further millions living both in rural as well as shanty ghettos in urban areas.
There is a report published by The Hindu daily that they have unearthed new documentary evidence in the alleged 2 G Spectrum allocation. The Hindu has carried this information under various news heads: “Will Manmohan distance himself from PMO officials as he did from Raja?”; “New papers show PMO analysed and agreed with Raja’s actions before 2G scam”; This facsimile has been published by mail Online in their post under a caption, “The PMO X-File: Documents prove PM knew about 2G issue but kept his silence”. Similar headline has been used by India Today also. “The 2G controversy may well be back to haunt the United Progressive Alliance government and its Prime Minister. With disgraced telecom minister A. Raja trying desperately to depose before the Joint Parliamentary Committee looking into the matter, their hands may be forced with new revelations emerging to call him.
And Raja waiting for an opportunity may well recount what this hitherto unseen note (accessed by Mail Today) has now put into public domain.” States Daily Mail.
“New evidence shows that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, far from being “at arm’s length” from ex-Telecom Minister A. Raja’s controversial 2G decisions, had directed officials in the PMO to “examine urgently” Mr. Raja’s letters outlining his intended decisions which eventually led to the 2G scam on January 10, 2008. Investigation now reveals that senior PMO officials had supported several of Mr. Raja’s acts on file, well before the 2G scam.” The Hindu elaborates through their columnist Shalini Singh very extensively and sharply via her multiple posts in The Hindu.
She continues further, “These very same 2G decisions of 2008 were later, in February 2012, declared by the Supreme Court to be “wholly arbitrary, capricious and contrary to public interest apart from being violative of the doctrine of equality.” Mr. Raja, his senior officers and industrialists were accused by the CBI of entering into a criminal conspiracy to cheat the exchequer of Rs. 1.76 lakh crore of revenue, as per the CAG’s estimates.”
After receiving a letter from Raja writen on 26 December 2007, Prime Minister directed on 29 December 2007, that the matter be “examined urgently”. Based on the PM’s directions, the then Principal Secretary, PMO, T.K.A. Nair and Secretary, PMO, Pulok Chatterji analysed Mr. Raja’s letter, discussed the implications and listed suggestions — while agreeing in writing with at least four of his actions ahead of the 2G scam.
Thus instead of maintaining an “arms’ length distance” from E. Raja, Prime Minister de facto acted very much in collusion.
Hindu goes on inimically unrestrained: “The new set of documents is at variance with the popular belief that Dr. Singh made weak attempts to caution Mr. Raja against his multiple illegal moves, but eventually failed to restrain him. File notings demonstrate not just agreement with Mr. Raja’s written intimations — but even a discussion on these specifications, between Mr. Chatterji and “the new Secretary DoT,” Siddharth Behura — nearly a week before the 2G scam.
On the Prime Minister’s directions, a detailed analysis on 2G was placed on file along with Mr. Raja’s six-page letter to the PM and a “Top Secret” note by the then External Affairs Minister (EAM) and Chairman of the GoM on Spectrum, Pranab Mukherjee, both coincidentally dated December 26, 2007. Mr. Chatterji, then a senior official in the PMO, on December 31, 2007, wrote on page 1/N of the file, in a “Confidential/Internal” note: “As desired by Pr. Secy., I have gone through the note of the EAM and the letter of Minister C&IT and an earlier note on the telecom issues. All these documents are placed below. I have prepared a comparative chart at F/X that gives various recommendations on each issue. The last col. gives certain suggestions. Pr. Secretary may like to see this.”
The PMO’s four-page “comparative chart,” which specifically deals with “Issues of new licenses,” establishes that the PMO was in agreement with the decisions for which Mr. Raja stands accused in the CBI charge sheet of April 2, 2011, the CAG report of November 16, 2010, and the Supreme Court judgment of February 2, 2012, which cancelled 122 licences.”
These are some of the extracts I have produced to highlight the propensity of this immense and grave dereliction on the part of normally shy looking innocent Prime Minister for presenting his image of Mr Clean, portending as Caeser’s Wife.
Notwithstanding the fact that there is another bigger “Coal Scandal” running to the tune of more than one hundred and eighty lacs Crores of Rupees ($ 37 billion) in the name of Mr Manmohan Singh directly when he was in charge of the portfolio.
It is obvious that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Mr P. Chidambaram must be probed thoroughly for their complicity or innocence until the truth has been known. Ms Sonia Gandhi as UPA Chairwoman and President Mr P. Mukherjee should also be examined in the interest of the truth that is so essential to bring out to uproot the corruption from the higher offices, and no immunity should be allowed in the greater public interests. Mr. Subramanian Swamy has presented lot of documentary proofs against Rahul Gandhi and Ms Sonia Gandhi to probe in 2 G scam as well as Commonwealth Games scam, besides her much maligned Boffors infamous scam and other clandestine perks that she had received via Iraqi oil-for-food deals, KGB, Swiss Bank, Opus Dei, ISI, LTTE, Madhav Rao Scindia and perhaps others also. Mr Swamy has multiples of court cases against her pending but cannot proceed due to noncooperation from the Government of India using official procedural glitches.
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