Business rivalry sharpens political war over 2G scam

The battle lines are drawn. With neither the UPA nor the NDA willing to budge over the demand for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) to probe the 2G scam, and with Parliament in limbo for nearly 20 days, the prospect of a snap poll does not look remote any more.

With corporate rivalries keeping the political pot on the boil, and India Inc appearing divided along political lines, the country may have to face elections well before 2014.

While certain quarters in the ruling UPA have dropped hints already, BJP leader Arun Jaitley on Friday indicated that it was a clear possibility.

“I don’t think the government, which is almost tripping by the day, can sustain (itself) for the three- and-a-half years which are left,” he said.

After stalling Parliament, the opposition has decided to hit the streets and stage nationwide protests to “expose” the UPA dispensation on the issue of corruption. It is already talking of trying to involve non-NDA parties to broaden its range of allies.

Underneath all the political muscle-flexing lies corporate rivalry. This became obvious when independent MP and former telecom entrepreneur Rajeev Chandrasekhar and Tata group chairman Ratan Tata launched a war of words over the spectrum issue. Chandrasekhar accused the Tatas of benefiting from out-of-turn spectrum allocations during the regime of A Raja.   

The battle took a sharp personal and political turn on Thursday with Tata hinting at Chandrasekhar’s BJP connections and accusing the BJP-led NDA of more policy flipflops than the UPA.

In a surprisingly political statement, Tata accused Chandrasekhar of “embarrassing the PM and the government” through his remarks. In the process, he also appeared to give Spectrum Raja - now under CBI investigations and Supreme Court fire - a pat on the back.

Tata said: “Whatever may be said, it must be recognised that the recent policy broke the powerful cartel which had been delaying implementation of policies such as growth of CDMA technologies, new GSM entrants, revision in subscriber-based spectrum allocation norms, and now even number portability.”

The business tensions underlying the spectrum scandal erupted again on the political sphere when telecom minister Kapil Sibal suddenly announced an inquiry by a retired judge into the 2G controversy outside parliament on Thursday. The BJP reacted strongly to this gambit, which is seen as an attempt to divert attention from the JPC demand. The party’s leader in the Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley, said the BJP was “seriously” examining the possibility of bringing a privilege motion against Sibal for announcing the probe at a press conference.

Senior BJP leader MM Joshi joined issue with Sibal, saying “the general practice is not to make any policy announcement outside the house when Parliament is in session.”

Unfazed by the BJP’s attack, Sibal clarified that the announcement of the inquiry was an administrative order and not a policy-decision.

“The BJP’s parliamentary privilege is that they will not let Parliament run and won’t let my ministry run either. I wish the leader of the opposition had been more thoughtful when he enunciated the law of parliamentary privileges. Vision gets blurred in enunciating the law when one is obsessed with politics,” he reacted.

The BJP continued to target prime minister Manmohan Singh for his silence on such “major issues” confronting the country. The latest cause of the saffron party’s anger against him is on account of Singh going on foreign tours while Parliament is in session.