The BJP today reacted strongly to Telecom Minister A Raja's statement that here was no question of his resignation over the Spectrum allocation controversy, saying as long as the DMK leader continued in office, the government could not free itself from the "taint of corruption".
Sources said the CBI, which is investigating the case, had committed a lapse by under-calculating the amount of "corruption" involved in the 2-G spectrum allocation.
"If he (A Raja) continues in office, the government could not free itself from the taint of corruption," senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley said in reply to a question.
Mr Jaitley refuted Mr Raja's argument that he had followed telecom regulator TRAI guidelines in the allocation of 2-G Spectrum.
"TRAI had said that the entry fee determined in 2001 is not the realistic price for obtaining the license. Perhaps, it needs to be re-assessed through market mechanism," he said.
Sources said the CBI had calculated the 2-G Spectrum deal on the basis of the foreign equity component while ignoring the domestic equity.
Some of the companies which bagged the Spectrum contract sold upto 60 per cent of the equity to foreign companies at 2007 market prices. The CBI has calculated only the share of foreign partners and put the amount of "corruption" in the scam at Rs 22,000 crore, the party claimed.
The CBI has stated in its FIR how the company which got the contract sold off some shares to a foreign company.
"These licenses were issued at a very nominal rate based on prices fixed in the year 2001. The quantum of loss to the Government because of this criminal conspiracy is estimated from the fact that M/s Swan was allotted UAS (unified access service) licences for 13 circles for Rs 1,537 crore. It off-loaded 45 per cent of its share to M/s Etilsalat of UAE for Rs 4,200 Crore," the FIR states.
