2G scam: NDA started it, says Sibal backed by report

New Delhi: As the evidence of how the 2G scam was birthed and delivered starts being presented in court, the government has returned the Opposition's fire, stating that while thousands of crores may have been lost (the jury's still out on how much, exactly), it was the NDA that started it.

Brandishing a report by Justice Shivraj Patil on lapses in how valuable spectrum was assigned from 2001 onwards, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal summarised, "All the decisions taken between 2003 and 2009 were procedurally wrong."

While six years of non-stop and unchecked mishandling of a valuable national resource may leave the average Indian winded, Justice Patil's report serves as political balm for the government which has seen former Telecom Minister A Raja arrested this week for serving as the axis that the complex scam rotated on.

"Those who are questioning will now have to answer," said Mr Sibal, who inherited the Telecom Ministry after Mr Raja resigned in disgrace in November. Mr Raja's own party, the DMK, a sizeable ally in the UPA government, has said that Mr Raja should be recognised as a national hero, whose "only mistake was to make mobile phones affordable for poor Indians."

The government appointed Justice Patil to study the functioning of the Department of Telecom (DoT) in December. The fact that his mandate was to examine records all the way back to 2001, when the NDA was in power, broadly hinted at the exit route that the government was in search of.

The report, which was submitted earlier this week, in five different folders, with 150-pages of findings and close to 1300 pages in annexures, does not name Mr Raja or other ministers. It does indict several DoT officials in both the NDA government, and the UPA, which came to power for its first term in 2004.

Justice Patil concludes that internal procedures followed by the Telecom Ministry under the NDA and then later the UPA deviated from policy.

In October 2003, the Telecom Regularity Authority of India (TRAI) which is meant to guide the government on policy, suggested that any new telecom player should have to go through multi-stage bidding.  However, a month later, the NDA opted for a first-come-first-served policy, which Mr Raja chose to stick with till 2008, when he awarded licenses for 2G spectrum.

The Patil report says that from 2004 to 2008, the entry fee for telecom operators was not revised and that the Telecom Ministry neither consulted with nor informed the Finance Ministry about the rates that were being charged.

In all, the report finds 25 procedural violations between 2001 and 2009, and cites 6 specific instances of lack of fairness and transparency while granting licences.

Justice Patil's report will be shared with the CBI, Mr Sibal said.

More arrests in the 2G scam: CBI sources

After former Telecom Minster Raja and two bureaucrats who worked closely with him were arrested, sources tell NDTV the CBI is now prepping to arrest Pradip Baijal, the former chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority  of India (TRAI). Mr Baijal's term extended from 2003 to 2006. (Watch)

It was Pradip Baijal's post-retirement job which has landed him in the CBI net. Baijal joined corporate lobbyist Niira Radia's firm Noesis Strategic Consulting company in 2007.  According NDTV's sources in the CBI, he  was instrumental in influencing telecom officials to award spectrum licenses.

The CBI sources say after former Telecom Secretary Siddharth Behura, Baijal is the next bureaucrat looking at potential arrest. He has already been raided and questioned before.

Swan Telecom's promoter Shahid Balwa may also be booked soon for influencing public officials. His office maintains, that he is cooperating with the CBI investigations and so has no reason to be arrested.

The one person who the CBI is unsure about is corporate lobbyist Niira Radia. They are uncertain whether to treat her as an accused or a witness. So the agency is likely to seek legal opinion in her case.

The CBI says it does not have evidence yet on a trail of money that would establish Mr Raja got kickbacks from the  companies that won licenses for mobile networks in 2008.  It is hoping custodial interrogation will throw light in this aspect.