The process of forming a joint parliamentary committee to probe the 2G spectrum scam was completed Tuesday with the Rajya Sabha nominating 10 of its members to the panel. The committee has 20 Lok Sabha members who were nominated last week. Under attack over the 2G scam, telecom minister Kapil Sibal on Tuesday sought
to put the blame on the BJP saying the NDA regime’s revenue-sharing method, instead of a fixed licence fee, caused a revenue loss of about `1.50 lakh crore. The licence fee charged at that time was `623 per subscriber and if that regime had continued for another 20 years, it would have earned the government over `2 lakh crore whereas only `80,000 crore was collected.
“So, if the net loss is calculated, it would come to around `1.50 lakh crores,” he said while moving the motion on setting up the JPC on 2G spectrum scam in the Rajya Sabha.”Let’s not get into it,” he quipped while responding to Leader of the Opposition Arun Jaitley’s defence of the revenue-sharing policy. Mr Jaitley contended the shift to revenue sharing mode was made to reduce the burden of price which was being shifted to the consumer.
The motion was later passed by voice vote after a heated debate which lasted for four hours.
Mr Sibal echoed the line of defence that the Prime Minister has taken in recent weeks that the basic policies followed for the allocation of 2G spectrum in 2008 were not faulty, but their implementation was faulty. The first-come first-serve policy — which was chosen instead of an auction of valuable spectrum — is the main reason for India turning into a nation of cellphone users, said Mr Sibal. “The process of implementation was manipulated,” he said. His remarks did not find much resonance with the BJP. “I cannot hide my disappointment with Mr Sibal’s opening remarks,” said the BJP’s Arun Jaitley, “they had an inbuilt rationalisation” of the telecom scam.
On exchange of allegations and counter allegations, Mr Sibal said, “I do pray that the kind of partisan seen in the House during the debate will not be witnessed in JPC.” The house also witnessed heated arguments between the AIADMK and DMK members. DMK member T. Shiva objected to AIADMK member V. Maitreyan remarks that Radia tapes carried conversation between corporate lobbyist Nira Radia and DMK chief M. Karunanidhi’s wife. He said the Chair should not allow mention of a person who was not in the House. AIADMK members trooped into the well protesting against Mr Siva’s objection. Mr Maitreyan also demanded inclusion of a member from his party in the JPC saying, “A JPC without any member of AIADMK is an aborted JPC.”
Mr Sibal faced the Opposition’s flak for this remark of ‘’zero loss’’ due to sale of spectrum in 2008 by former telecom minister A. Raja.The Opposition confronted him saying if nothing was wrong with the policy, why then his predecessor (Raja) was in jail. To this, Mr Sibal said “...the possibility of criminal culpability is the reason why he (Raja) has been prosecuted.” There was also a possibility of irregularities in the implementation of the policy, he added. He pointed out both the one-man panel and the CAG have found that the process of implementation was manipulated. “The government is looking at it very carefully. Action will be taken... nobody will be spared in criminal culpability.” Just before the results of Lok Sabha elections were announced on May 16, 2004, three licences were given to a particular entity in three circles... All that will be discussed in JPC,” he said.
On Mr Jaitley’s assertion that the finance minister had expressed his disagreement with the telecom policy in 2008, Mr Sibal said that it was only about spectrum beyond 4.4 Mhz.”I have the document of finance minister. In the letter he talks about the spectrum beyond 4.4 Mhz,” he said. BJP leader S.S. Ahluwalia asked him to lay down the letter in the House saying all such documents would be scrutinised by the JPC.
Mr Sibal also sought to give examples of the giving of spectrum in other countries. “In Finland, 3G spectrum was auctioned for free, Sweden took a token price of $11,020 for the 3G spectrum. In US, auction had to cancelled as people overbid; but no one sent a minister to jail saying that the method earned less that the revenue it was supposed to get,” he said. Mr Sibal also complained that the government was not allowed to present its case after the CAG report came as the Winter Session was washed out due to the opposition disrupting parliament to demand a JPC.
“A full Parliament session could have discussed all issues. Your demands were more for political reasons, keep the pot boiling, perhaps unintentionally stopping the other proceedings,’ Congress member Abhishek Manu Singhvi said, targeting the opposition. Objecting to his comments, BJP member S.S. Ahluwalia questioned the member for participating in the debate even as he had withdrawn his name from the JPC. Mr Singhvi in reply questioned BJP for the nomination of Jaswant Singh and Yashwant Sinha who were member of GoM on telecom policies in 2003 in the JPC citing conflict of interest. Mr Singhvi was earlier nominated for the JPC, but he withdrew his name stating he has fought cases for some telecom companies during the NDA regime.
Congress has three out of the 10 members from Rajya Sabha in the JPC, while in Lok Sabha it has eight out of 20, taking its representation to 11 in the 30-member panel. BJP has two members from the upper house and six from the lower house, making the total eight. The members from Rajya Sabha are: P.J. Kurien, Jayanthi Natarajan and Praveen Rashtrapal (Congress), Tiruchi Siva (DMK), Yogendra P. Trivedi (NCP), S.S. Ahluwalia and Ravi Shankar Prasad (BJP), Ramchandra Prasad Singh (JD-U), Satish Chandra Misra (BSP) and Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M).