With the central government at long last conceding the demand for a probe by a joint parliamentary committee into the irregularities in 2G spectrum allocation, no further time should be lost in getting to the bottom of the biggest scam in the history of independent India. The task now is to explore what went wrong at the policy level as well as in implementation, to fix responsibility wherever it belongs, and to present to Parliament and the people the whole truth about how government policy relating to a highly lucrative new sector was hijacked by a nexus among corrupt politicians, conniving or pliable officials, and big business. The JPC will start with an informational advantage: in addition to the breakthrough report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, it can make use of the abundant factual details gathered by the Shivaraj Patil committee, which uncovered serious lapses in the procedures followed by the Department of Telecommunications in issuance of licences and allocation of spectrum during 2001-2009. The report identified by name many of the public officials who, prima facie , appeared responsible for various irregularities in the implementation of laid-down procedures. It also pointed to the lack of fairness and transparency in the affairs of DoT under the watch, or at the instance, of successive Telecom Ministers. If therefore the government wants the terms of reference to include the whole 2001-2009 period, the opposition should have no credible objection. For the Bharatiya Janata Party to ask for the terms of reference to include multiple corruption scandals is pointless. Instead of a comprehensive probe into rising India's most damaging corruption scandal, the nation would then get a focus-less, all-over-the-place exercise.
Those like former Telecom Minister Arun Shourie, who handed over material evidence to the Central Bureau of Investigation, could be of real assistance to the JPC. While the CBI will be watched to see if it pushes hard enough in the criminal investigation and prosecution of the 2G scam, the JPC must empower itself to discover broader and deeper aspects of the truth. All political parties must cooperate to ensure the quick constitution of the high-powered body and the early completion of its probe. Much time has already been lost in the criminal investigation, raising the risk of the trails going cold. Once it is set up, the JPC must set itself clear tasks and goals, work in a time-bound way, and show results. It also needs to be transparent. This is an unusual opportunity for political India to demonstrate to the people that it is serious about rooting out corruption in policymaking and implementation in sensitive areas where temptations and traps abound.
