Telecom Fraud In India- The Option that the Government has

The latest controversy in the Indian Government, after the infamous CWG  and Adarsh Society Scam, has been dubbed as “the largest financial scam in free, independent India” as also the “most damaging corruption” scam of India. The scam, as we have all read in newspapers and criticized enough,  is centered on the allocation of the scarcely available 2G Spectrum, at throwaway, difficult to believe prices.

Accusing Union Telecom Minister A.Raja of orchestrating Rs 60,000-crore scam causing a deep dent on the Public Exchequer, the opposition parties -- Bharatiya Janata Party and Communist Party of India have asked the government to fire the minister and institute probe into the alleged irregularities in allotment of wireless radio spectrums and licenses to nine private operators in 2007.

The “checks and balances” as well as constitutionally justified ousting of a public servant has been the course adopted by Congress Government, reiterating the fact in the least, that not only individual citizens but public servants of a position of a Union Minister of any portfolio is not immune from liability under the garb of sovereign immunity, especially when the culpability is of a criminal wrong done- a wrong of misappropriation of funds.

The jurisprudential principles of “good governance”, and “responsibility in action”, are viewed as mere utopian and idealistic ideas having no relevance whatsoever, when such fraudulent activities come to the surface, and exposing everything that was hidden in the façade of honest, dignified and responsible public administration, where not just or only the babus or bureaucrats and other government officers, but people in as high positions as that of a Union Minister holding a portfolio under the Union Government are exposed with such flagrant exploitation of their positions, and not to forget, the enormous amount of money orchestrated.

A brief recapitulation of facts would throw light on what exactly had happened. The government had recommended an “open license regime” in 2007, thereby inviting applications till October 1 2007. Thereafter, all applications received between the time period of September 25 till October 1 2007 were rejected, while 25 September was fixed as an artificial cut off date. The licenses and spectrum allocation was then allotted to nine operators at Rs. 1650 Crores per operator, and  it was alleged that this price was not on the basis of the market value of 2007, but that so fixed on the basis of an auction of 2001.

However, interestingly the market value in the telecom sector pertaining to the allotment of licenses for spectrums had increased phenomenally in the 6 years from 2001 to 2007. Many critics have called this uncertain and changing state of affairs of 2007 as a “game” that began, and subsequently, when the game began, the rules had changed, comparing to what they were when the game had not begun.

Of course, the allegations have been denied at the outset by the Prime Minister of our country, and continuing forthwith, he has also enlightened the masses by expressing his “reluctance” in appointing A.Raja to the hold the telecom portfolio under the Union government. This has always been the best adopted strategy of the Congress Government constantly being in the state of culpability and then a state of denial and crafty scapegoat. Subsequently, the Congress Government entailed heavy revenue losses by allowing such spectrum licenses and their allotment trough this practice of under pricing.

As per the CBI investigations, it was been quite a revelation that the telecom ministry did not adopt an effective economic strategy of competitive bidding, but rather went in for ‘first come first serve’ approach, while allocating licenses to the operators, at an extremely uncompetitive market value of 2001 and fixing the cut off date to be September 2007 instead of October 1. This approach has been allegedly declared to be the brainchild of A.Raja. Raja, however, has denied all such allegations, and emphatically asserted that he took all decisions in accordance with the provisions of law, as per what his predecessors had done since 1993, without the involvement of any pressure from any external source whatsoever. He claims that the same was done by him for the purposes of extending the benefit of low costs to the consumers, when they avail the telecom services.

However, its important to point out that “auctioning is the best way to allocate spectrum as it is an invaluable natural resource. Auctioning would have ensured a clean and fair allocation process bringing in huge revenues for the public exchequer, which could have been utilized for further development of the telecom sector.”

It is now a question of what further action as a follow up needs to be taken. When the scam had hit Rajiv Gandhi Government, he had sacked the culpable officials of his Cabinet involved in the scam. However, our Prime Minister has simply ousted A Raja, which as a personal opinion is of a camouflaging and non effective kind. The deal is to either prove the corruption allegations, or later on see a smoking gun after a fire. True to form, while this season of scams has brought the legislature grinding to a halt, there is no sign that the government might fall. Moreover, with the next national election not scheduled until 2014, unless it loses a confidence vote the Congress will have more than enough time for damage control.  

Now that debates are being raised regarding the constitution of a Joint Parliamentary Committee at the instance of the Opposition for starting an investigative probe, there is an increased need for proving or disproving allegations of fraud. The CBI in close coordination with the JPC, should be allowed to work independently in order to establish guilt without reasonable doubt of all those involved. Policy decisions are something which falls outside the ambit of criminal proceedings. And therefore the working after subsequent constitution of the JPC becomes ever more important. As a personal belief, I feel that the government has lost precious time in dealing with the issue. And as a matter of fact, our Prime Minister did know about the issue 3 years before.

The issue has become bigger than what it was before, due to the system, which allowed it to be manipulated in such a huge way. And in order to avert all the harm done, and to prevent it from further being exacerbated, its essential that the JPC and/or CBI probe be done with all resources, as soon as possible, to reach at some satisfactory yet revealing conclusion, that upholds the ideal of justice, i.e. to give a person his due share of rewards and punishment.