Tales of India's telecom scams

MUMBAI, INDIA: Scams are nothing new to India. Irrespective of the left and right at the centre, there was no dearth of scams for the Incredible India! From Harshad Mehtha's legendary suitcase to the 2G scam, which is said to be the 'mother of all scams' in the country, the tale is more or less present (im)perfect continuous!

What makes the 2G Spectrum scam stand out is its scale and magnitude only. From corporate giants to lobbyists, from top-notch officials to hyper-active media personalities, the story has all that a blockbuster scriptwriter could look for. It is a scam that cannot be confined to the four walls of a ministry; nor is it confined to money only. It has the multi-dimensional use of power in all its meanings.

Ever since the scam broke out, the BJP-led opposition and other parties have been demanding for a Joint Parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into it, while the UPA government is adamant in its stand against a JPC, though the winter session of parliament was literally stalled thanks to the uproar over the scandal.

Even as the political attack has been going on, the story took an unexpected turn with the name of former BJP minister Ananth Kumar being dragged into it, with the allegation that lobbyist Niira Radia was close to him too.

Now, how will things proceed is something that we have to wait and see even though the investigative agencies and enforcement authorities are probing all the facets of the 2G scam including grilling of former telecom ministers Andimuthu Raja and Arun Shourie, Niira Radia, telecom department officials and sleuths of intelligence departments.

It is a big setback for the Ministry of Telecommunications, which was envisioned by former Prime Minister (late) Rajiv Gandhi and Sam Pitroda, the man behind India’s telecommunication revolution.

{#PageBreak#}

From Sukh Ram to Raja

Interestingly, this is not for the first time the ministry has faced allegations of corruption over the last two decades.

Right from Sukh Ram, the first telecom minister back in 1991, to Andimuthu Raja who made a disgraceful exit from the ministry in 2010, each virtually every minister who handled this portfolio has faced some sort of allegation.

Sukh Ram, the former telecom minister in P V Narshima Rao-led Congress government in 1996, faced corruption charges when the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) seized Rs.3.6 crore cash in concealed bags and suitcases from his official residence.

Under the allegations of awarding contract and benefiting an equipment firm for the Department of Telecommunication (DoT), the Delhi High Court convicted him of corruption charges and amassing disproportionate assets in 2006. It was the first-ever incident in the Ministry of Telecommunications’ history, where a top minister faced corruption charges and even was convicted by court.

After Sukh Ram, it was the turn of BJP’s telecom minister, late Pramod Mahajan, in 2001, to face several allegations and accusations right from the controversial National Telecom Policy 1999 that allowed private telecom companies’ entry into telephony services to changing the policy midway by replacing the license fees with revenue sharing agreement.

Mahanjan was accused of favoring Reliance Infocomm in 2001, controlled by Mukesh Ambani, for nationwide mobility through CDMA without payment of the required license fees. Also he had a rift with his own party men and ministerial colleague Arun Shourie over the disinvestment and privatization of VSNL. In addition, he was accused of playing a part in the murder of journalist Shivani Bhatnagar in 1999, the inside story of which is still a mystery, though rumours are aplenty.

After BJP, it was again the turn of Congress party’s alley Dayanidhi Maran of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) to face allegations. Maran, appointed as Union Minister of Communication and Technology in 2004, was accused by media of demanding 33.33 per cent stake in the Tata-Rupert Murdoch DTH business (Tata Sky) for his family owned Sun Network.

This controversy cost Maran dearly, as he had to resign from the union minister's post in 2007 and later A. Raja of DMK was appointed the new telecom minister. Raja in his three years short tenure at the telecom ministry faced allegations of issuing new licenses to mobile companies and additional spectrum to 2G operators.

The former minister has been accused of being partial to certain mobile companies and favoring them through the ‘first come, first served’ rule, preponing the cut-off date and even delaying the dates for new license applications. Moreover Raja has been accused of ignoring policy guidelines of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and the Department of Telecommunication (DoT).

Former Telecom Minister Arun Shourie even said that the CBI knows the identity of the man who handled the bribe money in the Telecom Ministry, which again came as a blow to the minister. And now CBI is reportedly planning to question Shourie too.

Now with the can of worm being partially opened, we have witnessed this much, so what will be the state of the affairs when it is fully open? Will Sibal be able to cleanse the ministry? When the very blueprint of India's telecom revolution was made Pitroda would not have thought of such a financial implication to it.

Augean stables are difficult to clean, but we have to, at any cost.