Terming Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal’s claim of zero loss to the exchequer in 2G spectrum scam as bizarre arithmetic, Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Wednesday said this would backfire and the people of India would severely reject it.
“Sibal is badly misreading the mood of the people and the nation in the face of this scam. The correct thing for the government would be address the scam squarely and assist the various investigations to identify the crime and its perpetrators, punish them and recover the money/spectrum lost,” he said in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Any “amateurish” efforts to sweep this under the carpet, such as the one being attempted by Sibal, will “backfire and be severely rejected by the people of India”, he said.
Mr. Sibal had recently slammed the government auditor CAG for its projection of Rs. 1.76 lakh crore as presumptive loss on account of 2G spectrum allocation, terming its methodology as “utterly erroneous”. He had said there was “no loss at all” to the exchequer due to allocation of licences and 2G spectrum in 2008.
Mr. Sibal’s claims that zero loss caused to the exchequer due to the 2G spectrum scam are bizarre mathematics and his public trashing of CAG report completely unwarranted and unbecoming of the dignity of a Union Minister, Mr. Chandrasekhar said in the letter.
The Rajya Sabha MP requested the Prime Minister to advise Mr. Sibal to recall his press release and statements, specifically about the zero loss emanating from the 2G spectrum scam. Such statements from the Minister have wide ranging implications on the judicial and investigative process, he said.
Mr. Chandrasekhar alleged that Mr. Sibal may have been “completely misled by those who have committed the crime (both DoT officials and corporates in collusion) based on whose advice he chose to lead this misadventure.”
The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on a “presumptive loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the exchequer” had led former telecom minister A. Raja to resign.
Following the tabling of the report in Parliament, the Opposition has continuously attacked the government, demanding the formation of a Joint Parliamentary Committee.
Mr. Chandrasekhar said Mr. Sibal’s statement had seven serious implications, including insult to the Supreme Court judgment, misuse of his position as Union Minister to influence or prejudice CBI investigations and making it impossible for government to recover lost revenues.
He said the Minister’s statement also attempts to whitewash scams giving safe passage to beneficiaries, while undermining the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) as well as insulting the intelligence of a billion Indians.
