New Delhi:
A Delhi court handling the 2G spectrum allocation scam trial is likely to decide today whether Union Home minister P Chidambaram should be made a co-accused in the swindle for allegedly allowing former Telecom Minister A Raja to gift mobile network licenses and scarce second-generation or 2G spectrum at prices that were staggeringly low.
In a crucial verdict on Thursday, the Supreme Court refused to order the CBI to investigate the actions of P Chidambaram who was Finance Minister when Mr Raja allegedly fathered India's biggest swindle. That decision, Justice AK Ganguly and GS Singhvi said, must be taken in two weeks by the trial court that's headed by Judge OP Saini.
The Supreme Court also said in its verdict that Mr Raja deliberately kept Mr Chidambaram out of the loop on his decisions - a stand that will help prop up Mr Chidambaram during a period of incessant attack. The judges say Mr Raja knew, for example, that the Finance Secretary at the time had objected to fixing prices for licenses at the rates used in 2001, and therefore he did not seek the opinions of the Finance Ministry. The charges against Mr Chidambaram, being heard in the trial court, have been made by Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy.
In another crucial verdict yesterday, the Supreme Court also cancelled 122 telecom licenses issued by A Raja in 2008.
Reacting to the developments, the government maintained that the verdicts were not an indictment of either its governance or the Prime Minister and then Finance Minister P Chidambaram. Instead, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal argued, that the first-come-first-serve policy used by Mr Raja has been faulted by the court, and for this, the BJP must apologise to the country.
The BJP, however, said that the verdict established the government's collective failure to check Mr Raja as he conspired to favour companies by gifting them out-of-turn licenses at throwaway prices with free spectrum built into the deal.