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| 2G Scam verdict: Blow for justice, blow to Government | | | Virendra Parekh | 2/12/2012 11:15:57 PM |
| Two landmark judgments in less than a fortnight have dealt body blows to the battered image of the UPA government. The first one went in favour of Vodafone which was saved from shelling out Rs. 11000 crore as capital gains tax on the purchase of Hutch's India operations. And now the Supreme Court has in another landmark ruling cancelled 122 licences awarded by former telecom minister A Raja to his corporate cronies at throw-away prices. The common thread to both the judgments is that the government had acted in a "totally arbitrary and unconstitutional manner". While being a blow for justice, it is at the same time a blow to the govern-ment's credibility-or what is left of it.
With brazen shamelessness that has been the hallmark of this government, telecom minister Kapil Sibal has gone to town proclaiming that the judgment does not reflect poorly on the Government.
True, the court has frowned on the 'first-come-first-served (FCFS) principle followed by Raja in allotting licences, but that was a continuation of the NDA's policy.
So, argued Mr. Sibal, all that the UPA was guilty of was following in the NDA's footsteps!
These audacious assertions, however, cannot detract from the fact that Congress, the Prime Minister and the UPA regime once again stand thoroughly exposed. The policy followed by the telecom ministry under A Raja was a total perversion of FCFS principle followed by NDA government, both in the context and the content.
The critical difference between the NDA and Raja's FCFS was that when the NDA gave out such licences, there was no great mismatch between demand and supply. There was no spectrum shortage at the time, or any flood of applications, or (most importantly) any bizarre twisting of the FCFS principle as was done by Raja. Therefore, FCFS in 2003 harmed no one. If anything, it lowered tariffs and helped expand the market.
In the current case, there were 575 applications when 122 licences were given out. Raja followed no policy other than favouring his cronies. Even the first-come-first-served principle was perversely changed to favour particular companies by fixing October 1, 2007 as the last date for receiving applications, and then abruptly advancing it to September 25 without giving any reasons. The revised cut-out date itself was not made public till January 10, 2008.
In other words, while changing the cutoff date, Raja knew exactly whom he was benefiting.
Even on that day, those qualifying were also given precisely 45 minutes to furnish bank drafts for Rs. 1,650 crore as upfront licence fees. Obviously, this was known only to those who were preordained to get the licenses. In any case, during UPA-1, the government had come out with its own licensing policy and was under no compulsion to stick to FCFS. And pray, if everything was going fine, why had the Prime Minister and the Law Minister opposed Raja's FCFS?
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