The probe ordered by the United Progressive Alliance government into whether the processes and procedures followed from 2001 by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) in the grant of licences and the allocation of spectrum were ‘right, fair and reasonable' is overdue. The one-member committee of retired Supreme Court judge Shivraj Patil will have an opportunity to examine the twists and turns of high-stake telecom policy at the behest of telecom companies, the total lack of transparency, and the redrawing of rules to benefit select corporate entities. There can now be little doubt that the telecom scandal — which was enabled by the hijacking of telecom policy by special interests — began soon after the advent of mobile telephony and the formulation of the National Telecom Policy, 1994. During the first few years, marked by high tariffs and low subscriber bases, the telecom companies operating in different telecom circles struggled with high project costs and low revenues. Under pressure from these companies, the Government of India came up with the New Telecom Policy, 1999, which was a strategic shift from the licence fee regime to a revenue-sharing model. Although the new policy led to a quantum jump in telecom operations, and brought increased revenues to both the operators and the national exchequer, the murky circumstances in which the policy change was made by the National Democratic Alliance government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party gave rise to serious misgivings in the public mind.
By fixing the period beginning 2001 for the probe, Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology Kapil Sibal is seeking to bring under the purview of the one-man committee DoT's grant of the fourth telecom licence for a price of Rs.1,651 crore. Mr. Sibal's predecessor, A. Raja, had used this as a precedent for the allocation of 2G spectrum at the same price on a first-come-first-served basis in 2008. Just as the flip-flop in the policy of the NDA government is suspect (a point made sharply by Ratan Tata in his open reply to Rajeev Chandrasekhar's open letter to him: for the texts, see www.thehindu.com), so also is the UPA government's continuation of an old policy under changed circumstances. Whether, post-2001, some or several political players made fortunes by changing policy or by sticking to the old policy against sound professional advice and common sense is a matter for the Central Bureau of Investigation to investigate and prosecute. However, the apprehension is that the telecom mega-scandal, whose roots go deep in our political system, could escape agencies that have limited remits or are politically manipulable. It is in this context that a comprehensive enquiry by a high-powered Joint Parliamentary Committee — where the opposition has free rein and where adversariality becomes a potent way of truth-discovery — becomes an inescapable democratic necessity.
Keywords: 2G spectrum scam, probe, one-man panel, DoT, UPA Government, Kapil Sibal, A. Raja
Why JPC? Its the same dirty politician going to be a member of this committee, even there is going to be a scandal in who should be member of this. Given the huge money involved and given the dirty political background of every MP who becomes a member of this committee, may try to compromise with each other in how much of this money can be shared and then all members bring out a statement that no such scam has happened. If this being the case what benefit is achieved from the outcry of media or the novice citizen. Just clueless and heading for doomsday.
The Govt should not shy away for ordering a JPC to go in deep into the 2 G spectrum scam. Dr Subramanyam Swamy says that he has got proof that both Karunanidhi and Sonia Gandhi are involved in the scam and Raja is only a tool. If that be so, the responsibility of Dr. Manmohan Singh is more to find out the truth behind the scam.
Right now in the eyes of the public:- 1. The CBI is untrustworthy- Our beloved opposition has dubbed it the Congress Bureau of Investigation. Can they pull of an unbiased probe?2. The police of the country are incapable of conducting even a burglery investigation in an unbiased fashion. 3. The Judiciary can't deliver a verdict when politics/religion are involved simply because they are too scared of the repurcussions. 4. The media, which was earlier acting as the Judge and Jury has now created a trust deficit with the public thanks to this Radia thing. 5. Our beloved corporates like Mr.Tata who were such respected figures have lost a bit of their image thanks to their hand being found in the 2G pie. All/Some/None of the above may be true. We simply don't know. Tomorrow if the JPC is formed and it comes out with its set of findings, we will just shrug it off and doubt whatever conclusions it has come to because that is who we are. That is who our "leaders" have made us. Skeptical ,clueless Indians.
Prime Minister, Sonia Gandhi Na Rahul Gandhi along with Digvijay, Chidambaram, Pranav Muharjee all think that when people gathered around listen to these morons they all clap. Congress is fooling people. Manmohan Singh thinks what ever sentences he reads all are the gospels truth. A JPC is the only solution.
Lallu Prasad Yadav appointed railway sponsored one man commission to inquire Godhra carnage. Now..Kapil Sibal has formed judical commission which..will..peruse CAG report.JPC alone can find out the truth and the beneficiaries of scam
While the editorial may be good, I'm pained to see the different yardstick that you apply for different parties / persons. A news paper of your standard cannot do so in the interest of the nation. A question - the 2G scam is happening in your own backyard. Can your team of journalists not dig more and find out what Mr. Raja did or did not do, much like you did to unearth Bofors? There are other media organization that are reporting the so-called wrong doings of the ex-minister. Why is The Hindu so silent?
i am really happy to see that atleast one newspaper has the guts to print the opinion of the entire nation . No other print / electronic media is concerned as to whether the truth is finally going to come out or not. Everyone is still looking for "what's in it for them". I am fearful that even if a JPC is allowed, the Congress has had ample time to hide(destroy would be a better word i feel) all the evidence pointing towards them. I am neither a Congress nor a BJP supporter. But the statistics do show that major scams of this huge scale happen only in the Congress rule. Religios Riots happen in the Congress rule. Almost everyone in the Congress now has a case against them. OUR government does nothing. If our Honourable PM is really so honest, let him come out and accept all the wrongdoings. What really is bothering Congress is that once the JPC is started the party would definitely be going to the Dogs. Damn you politicians, it is the hard earned money of the people of India you are wasting. Our human nature is such that if a person is held in high respect, even though a mistake is committed by him / her, we are willing to forgive, once they accept their wrong doings. Mr. Manmohan Singh, for once kindly act as a responsible Prime Minister ( and not Sonia Gandhi's Personal Assistant) and see that the future generations would be proud to live in India.
The period specified for submission of report by the one man committee is four weeks and it is preposterous to probe since 2001. It is ridiculous to appoint this committee when CBI is going to give its report in March 2011 in detail. It is also clumsy to appoint this committee when the entire opposition is stalling the Parliament for appointin the JPC. And every knows that how would be the report is going to be. It may be another hush up by UPA Government.
The recent scam involving the ministry of telecom and A Raja cannot be just resolved with yet another probe.The matter needs more attention than just appointing a retired judge who will take a life time to make a decision on the scam.By the time the judgement is out Mr Raja and his accomplices will get another ways to bail out if proved guilty.There should be a Tribunal like that of educational and green tribunals for the cases involving parlementarians as well.Its high time that we as a largest democracy epitomize True democracy and not just Bookish Democracy.
A fundamental principle of a new administration is to review the existing policies on taking over the reins, so that these can be adjusted to their election menifestos and modified as per new conditions and ground realities. When the UPA came to power, the Telecom Minister instead of becoming a rote copier of the existing policy on Telecom, should have reviewed the same, if necessary by placing it before the cabinet and thus formulating something which they could defend rather than try to throw the blame on the past policies. If the NDA policies were so bad, they should have reviewed these and formulated them afresh, based on their perception of public good and changes with time. To do so now, and try to make old policies a scapegoat, is miserably wrong, and clearly smack of diluting the whole issue, trying to thwart public voices as well as attempts to remove the C2G scam stigma on UPA. No doubt JPC could result in stalemates due to party politics, but there is no clear "independant" entity to investigate. CBI is obviously loaded with multiplicity of investigations and so far has glaringly acted as a Stooge or a Tool of the govt in power. There should be a complete review of the Constution, to introduce a provision of recall of all legislators, ways of having referenda based on public demands, more clear checks and balances on various powers that be, and clear accountability of the PM and the Cabinet to the people; by responding to issues rather than by an arrogant silence.
We had seen numerous forgeries and scams occurred in our nation .Some of them are in the state levels and a few are in the national level. In all these scams public money got looted by some persons with the help of some irresponsible bureaucrat and dishonest politicians. From our past experience, regarding the enquiry and punishment of those people engaged in these forgeries only a few persons got punished and jailed even if the enquire committees were parliamentarial level , judicial or other independent agencies. Now it is high time to think about the formation of a permanent constitutional body for the continues monitoring of the high profile bureaucrat and politicians regarding there work. The body should have the power to enquire and prosecute the culprit in a scheduled time frame. Other vice our nation will going to face number of such scams in the forth coming days.
Attempts by vested interests to make this into a political issue should be resisted. The media should not give any succour to such attempts. The issue here is the failure of individuals holding high offices. A minister is head of the executive and has to function within the law as any other executive. He or she cannot and should not be allowed to put the mantle of a politician to renege from responsibilities. Corruption or breaking of law by ministers and high officials should face the full force of law as would any other citizen. The argument that the present government followed the procedure of the previous government is rather specious. The technology behind the issue has been and still is continuously evolving and so has the nature of the business based on this technology. It is a government's duty to continuously review the rules and regulations and also maximise its revenue. The image of the prime minister that comes out of this saga is rather pathetic and sad. If Indian democracy continue in this direction let us all pray for salvation.
Sure there has been a revolution as getting a Telephone connection was a nightmare and very expensive and opening or basically being realistic showed the potential of the Indian market. But the fact remains a good turn for society should not allow some to make enormous money in BLACK while the majority pay taxes upfront. This is the core and solution to find and bring to book who encouraged underhand deals owing to their power as all accept that we came from the Dark Ages to Modernity and the administrators could have done it honestly and simply- thus we should look at the positive side of our Government over the years and attack the people who made money by cheating-like robbers,crooks and Madoffs.
The monumental adamancy the UPA 2 government adopts in not yielding to the JPC probe passes one's comprehension. The concerted and consistent demand is raised not only by the oppsition but by the UPA members also. The last sentence of your editorial puts tongues to the surging ire that swells up in the heart of every right thinking member of the public. Is it the mortal fear that even those in the high pedastal of authoriy are involved in the scandal that makes the government shirk at the vociferous demand that has paralysed parliamentary democracy in the country for a record duration of more that twenty days. The atrocious government insensitivity to the popular demand has made a mockery of collective responsibilty. It has exposed the powerlessness of a common voter and the invincibility of the callous elements in power. This is nothing but an abject defeat of the spirit of true democracy- "government of the people, for the people and by the people."
I think, any enquiry now to check the rationale and wisdom of a decision taken a decade ago is misplaced, especially concerning the telecom policy because not much was known then regarding the power of a "mobile" as an indispensable device and revenue generator, either to the policy makers or the public at large. In short, the knowledge base of this technology was very limited even to the professionals in the telecommunication field. The policy makers getting educated and influenced by vested interests from manufacturers and marketing professionals is nothing new and that is what might have happened in the early years. But, the point to be noted is, there was at that time no furore from the public or the Opposition Parties about what was going on. The only thing was, there were very few takers for the "mobiles", then costing around Rs 40,000/- for a basic model. The point, I am stressing is that it is willy nilly impossible now to fairly judge the rationale for a decision taken a decade ago, when the expertise was very limited both to policy makers and ordinary public, as compared to what is today. Otherwise, would there not have been a furore then, inside and outside Parliament as is now ?
What are you arguing here? If JPC is a democratic necessity then why the Patil committee? How does it become overdue? This committee will only examine whether the procedures were followed.Procedures are almost always followed, still huge loot of public money takes place. Bribes are demanded even to follow the procedures, and no bureaucrat deviates from procedures for fear of being caught.
Whoever leaked the tapes should be given an award?(Indepenndence Day Bravery award). There is no way we would ever find out the machinations/corruption if these were not public. The contents are not private. It is not about TATAs private affairs. This shows the rot in the system. Hopefully, the system will improve as a result of this scrutiny. One crook calling another crook a crook is what we are seeing all over in center and in Karnataka. The other biggie corporates are all silent. Come on! Dont come out and throw occassional corporate social responsibility (CSR) act on us gullible public. They are shaking the hand and slapping the wrist all at the same time.If this is what it takes to do business, Indias proseprity will be short-lived.
Mr.Sibal has done a right thing to explore the political hedonism in the NDA era. I find it too far fetched to seek a report within a span of 4 weeks for the investigation of acts taken place almost a decade ago. I find JPC unnecessary in the given context because it would involve cheap politics and political melodrama. The opposition has too little to show off as its contribution as a "good opposition party" within UPA 2.0 so it is just after political mileage. There are several key issues to be addressed in the current context which is perhaps more important than the ones like demand for JPC and the opposition failing to address the same induces antonymous feeling about their claims. They could have attended the parliamentary sessions yet shown protests in other forms.
This is just another attempt to derail the opposition demand for a JPC. Why does the Congress keep attacking the BJP alone for disrupting parliament and demanding a JPC. What about the other opposition parties? Are they invisible or do the glasses through which the Congress views all this have some special filter.
I entirely agree with the last sentence of your editorial that JPC is the ONLY solution to find out the truth. The one-man Commission, is only to distract public outrage over the scam, which has no parallel in its enormity in its size and manipulation .
Thorough investigation of this scam and necessary punishment to the people who are found guilty is absolutely necessary to improve the image of our country/political system. Coalition Government should not be afraid of allies helping to be in power.
In your last sentence you have aptly summed up what needs to be done. Without further delay, appoint a JPC and ensure that democratic and parliamentary aspirations are met and the country's parliament moves at least to a trouble free budget session. If, however Congress mulishly pursues its short term interest by digressing like appointing a judge to make the inquiry, it will be futile. In this context, jurists and media writers should comment on the habit of rushing to taking recourse to judges for what are purely political and administrative actions. A few years back, writing in the London Review of Books, Fedinand Mount's "What are Judges For" debated the very same issues which are now being increasingly resorted to by our government of rushing to appoint a judge to escape from taking the much needed administrative action. It is sad that the judicial community is also falling for this SOS from the weak and harassed executive. Even retired judges should refrain from coming to the rescue of the executive.
It is strange that when the parliament along with the nation as a whole is agitated about the 2G scam, the Prime Minister who is the head of the government (it is Manmohan Singh government, isn't it?)has been silent about it. The media however leaves him alone and is content to go after a minister, forgetting that the Prime Minister and his cabinet constitute the government of India. Media also forgets that it will only take a letter from the PM to the President to remove a minister from office.
The whole policy seems to be guided by vested Business Houses. Whether the various Governments whether it is NDA or UPA accepted out of ignorance or any other influences has to be established by Independent Investigation Agencies.The whole thing came out because of CAG reports and certain comments by SC.Mr Raja inspite of PM cautioning him to take all precautions before taking the final decision, simply ignored the advice and took the decision on his own way and now he is pleading he just followed the polcies of the previous governments.No body prevented Raja to examine the policy and change them if necessary to prevent huge loss to the Government. A prudent Minister should have followed this. Besides the allocations have been made to some unknown and inexperienced and doubtful companies.Added to that the leaks of tapes of certain lobbyists create doubts about the whole episode. People have also lost confidance in Investigation agencies. Will the truth ever come out?
We need to appreciate the consistency in your thought process, in ordering for a JPC, but in the process,you have rather unwittingly or(with intention), questioned the relevance of many agencies starting from PAC, CBI under the supervision of Apex court to a one man committee headed by a retired Judge. Mr Ratan Tata, has shifted the burden from Congress to BJP, by making a statement on the flip flop during NDA regime. What is that the govt or JPC will attempt to find? It has become an admitted fact that the huge revenue loss had occurred because of the pricing issue. Why should the govt wait for a probe to bring out this fact? Amidst the rhetoric, there is no sure methodology to recover the revenue loss? Politicians only want to score points over one another. What is the President of India doing at this moment? Does the constitution provide her right to remain silent, when the country is in turmoil?Mr Narasimha rao, a true chanakya, who really paved the way for a resurgent India, was often accused of not opening his mouth and maintaining a smug face at all times. What is the learned PM of the day doing? He has not uttered a word on this for more than 3 months. Is he trying to portray himself as a Jesus Christ surrounded by Judas? Why is the Apex court not questioning his decision making ability, when it questioned the minister for ignoring PM's sage advice. The day, that happens, then all the truth will come rolling out. The media and in particular the paid channels, are going overboard in claiming that CBI has recovered dairies containing incriminating evidence of the deals done by Raja? Is he such a naive person, to leave the trail behind, for more than a year? We do not understand why people of this great country are being treated like fools dayin and day out? The last sentence in your Editorial stands out for its telltale comment on the way to discover the truth. Are you forgetting the fact that all of them are living in glass houses?
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