Less than a month after he was acquitted by a Delhi court in the 2G spectrum allocation case, former union telecom minister
A Raja
has bared all in a new book '2G Saga Unfolds', extracts of which have been made available exclusively to TOI's
Sagarika Ghose
.
A RAJA ON FORMER CAG VINOD RAI:
He had the temerity to dub himself the `Nation's Conscience Keeper ... his words and actions are:
Malicious vigilantism that makes a mockery of his constitutional responsibilities
Disgraceful purchase of self promotion at the cost of truth and Integrity
Wanton sacrifice of national progress ... corrupt commercialism couched in moral rhetoric ... reports of auditors like Shriman Vinod Rai are mere trash ..fit for the dutbin.
It is my contention that the sanctity of the CAG was severely compromised by its then head Mr Vinod Rai. Mr Rai clearly had ulterior motives in overreaching the bounds of his constitutional function. He tried to foist his personal (or influenced) agenda by sensationalising information and creating the appearance of procedural lapses and financial misappropriation.
A RAJA ON SUNIL BHARTI MITTAL
Karthi Chidambaram who is an acquaintance called me up one day in the middle of September 2007 and told me that his friend Sunil Mittal (of Airtel) urgently wanted to speak with me that very day...(Mittal) boasted of his position of influence in the telecom sector as also his personal political clout. He claimed the COAI was used for very cordial relations with all my predecessors in the ministry and he expected "similar co-operation" from me...
I admired the confidence-even though it had shades of smug conceit -of Mr Sunil Mittal who probably believed that the Telecom Sector's governing bodies were obliged to pander to an industry player of his stature..At no point were they (COAI) willing to concede anything or scale back their demands. This sort of bullying to try to control the workings of the government was not acceptable to me.
A stealthy ploy had been stage managed in the
Telecom Ministry to obfuscate the availability of spectrum and to gather the scattered spectrum only when the time came to assign additional spectrum and increase the monopoly of the existing service providers.
A RAJA ON MANMOHAN SINGH
The way the Prime Minister conducted himself in no way constituted any administrative lapses or criminal acts. In fact the PM was disturbed when I explained to him the exploitation by the cartel in the telecom sector. He wanted the hidden spectrum to be made available for public use...my anguish is that the Government headed by him did not back him up..I have witnessed the colossal intellectual and moral stature he has achieved...I do not know why he could not muster the resolve even though truth was on his side to stand against the verbal abuses of the opposition, unwarranted criticism of the 2G Bench and the staged outbursts of the biased media.
2G scam case: All you need to know
On December 21, 2017, a special court acquitted all those accused in the 2G spectrum allocation scam case. Conspired a decade ago, the scam involved ministers, bureaucrats and leading corporates. According to the Comptroller and Auditor General's (CAG) office, it cost the exchequer a whopping Rs 1.76 lakh crore. Here's a look at how case unfolded.
A RAJA ON FORMER SOLICITOR GENERAL GE VAHANVATI
He clasped my hands and said, "Please understand my position. Media goes on with whatever they like. I do not have enough support from the government too. What can I do?" I felt sorry.
A RAJA ON P Chidambaram
P Chidambaram's stand on the 2G case is still a puzzle to me. He is an administrator of strong acumen, an able lawyer and a seasoned parliamentarian. Yet I was surprised to see him shying away from discussing the 2G situation with me and even avoiding speaking to me when we happened to pass each other in the airport...Chidambaram's silence and his avoiding me put me on a caution about what might be coming down the road. I sensed that a decision to put me behind bars had been taken to salvage the Government's image. I was preparing myself both mentally and physically for jail life. I became vegetarian and started exercising twice daily.
A RAJA ON UPA 2
It is my conviction consequent to the whole experience of the trial that there was political motivation to kill UPA-II and Rai's was the shoulder on which the gun was placed. It is indeed sad that in spite of having so many intelligence agencies and eminent legal minds at its disposal the UPA-II government could not sense this and only tried to use me as a shield but were still unable to escape the bullets.
