A major allegation that former Telecom Minister A. Raja faced was that he had misled the Prime Minister by keeping him in the dark about a tweak he had made in the telecom licensing policy that shifted the basis from “date of application” to “date of payment of fee”.
It was not Mr. Raja, but officials of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) who misrepresented the facts to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, according to the special court’s findings in the 2G case.
Suppressed facts
“It was not Sh. A. Raja, but Sh. Pulok Chatterjee, in consultation with Sh. T.K.A. Nair, who had suppressed the most relevant and controversial part of the letter of Sh. A. Raja from the then Hon’ble Prime Minister,” Special Judge O.P. Saini said.
Mr. Chatterjee was then Joint Secretary in the PMO, while Mr. Nair was the Principal Secretary. He later took over from Mr. Nair as Principal Secretary.
In the letter of December 26, 2007, Mr. Raja sought to explain the three-stage process, that is grant of Letter of Intent, issue of licence, and issue of wireless licence. Dr. Singh had asked that this be examined urgently.
After discussing the matter with Mr. Nair, Mr. Chatterjee recorded a long note on January 6, 2008, running to five pages.
The judge said the note did not consider the issue of new licences being set to be issued as per changed criteria. Despite this issue being most controversial, it was ignored and only a “partial view” was presented to the Prime Minister.
“Moreover, the note suffered from the vice of excessive length and technical jargon,” he said.
While Mr. Raja had conveyed to the Prime Minister what he intended to do with telecom licences, only a partial view was presented to Dr. Singh by PMO officials, and Mr. Raja could not be faulted for this.
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“[The] Prime Minister is a busy executive. Where from would he find the time to read such length notes? The Prime Minister is not expected to be immersed in files. It was much easier and better for him to read and understand the letter of Sh. A. Raja rather than this note of Sh. Pulok Chatterjee.”
Wrapped in mystery
It was not clear from the record if this note was seen by the Prime Minister. However, it was clear that somebody from the PMO had given the go-ahead to the DoT for issue of new licences, “and most probably it was Sh. Pulok Chatterjee himself, as his note records that he had spoken to Secretary (T),” the court said.
The DoT issued 120 new licences on January 8, 2008, and the Prime Minister came to know of it.
“Thereafter only, Sh. Pulok Chatterjee became wiser and rectified his mistake, and placed the correct facts before the then Hon’ble Prime Minister, but by that time, it was too late,” the judge observed.
