New Delhi: A Raja, former Telecom Minister and senior leader of the DMK, has submitted a detailed explanation of why he is incorrectly accused of masterminding one of India's biggest scams and "misleading the Prime Minister," a charge levelled in a controversial report by a parliamentary committee.
In a 112-page defence, sent to the committee because his request to testify was rejected, Mr
Raja has reiterated that the PM and Finance Minister P Chidambaram were aware of the policies that he followed in 2008 to allot mobile network licences and second-generation or 2G airwaves. (
Read: Raja's statement to Joint Parliamentary Committee)
He also says that in 2009, when the Prime Minister's coalition was re-elected (the DMK was a member till just a few weeks ago), Dr Manmohan Singh reinstated Mr Raja as Telecom Minister. "Surely, if he felt that I had misled him or offended him in any manner, my reappointment would not have happened," Mr Raja states.
A Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) of 30 lawmakers from different parties is deeply divided about the findings of its post-mortem of the telecom scam, estimated to be worth 1.76 lakh crores according to the government's auditor. The committee is headed by a Congressman, PC Chacko, who rejected requests by the Opposition to summon to the PM and let Mr
Raja testify.
The Samajwadi Party, headed by Mulayam Singh Yadav, which provides external support for the PM's minority government, has decided that like the BJP and the Left, it will reject Mr Chacko's report, which absolves the PM and Mr Chidambaram of any responsibility, and suggests Mr
Raja tweaked the rules of a first-come-first-serve policy to push companies he favoured to the front of a long line of applicants. Mr Chacko's report says Mr
Raja, as Telecom Minister, "mis-led" the PM.
In his note, Mr
Raja retaliates that if the committee wants to "draw any conclusions... it is mandatory to record both my statement and the statement of the Hon'ble PM."