Wires crossed

There was always a whiff of corruption in the allotment of wireless 2G spectrum to telecom companies. When the allotments took place last year, there were allegations that the entire process was skewed and had allowed many companies to make huge instant profits while at the same time  costing the government thousands of crores in lost licence fees. At that time too, the telecom minister A Raja was at the centre of the storm but the political compulsions of the UPA government ensured that there was no investigation.

A year later, the picture is different. The UPA coalition, specifically the Congress, looks more secure and thus more willing to take on a minister from the DMK. That may have emboldened the CBI to conduct raids against the department of telecom. Though that is a political spin on the issue, the loud protests by the DMK chief M Karunanidhi bear this out. After all it is not often that the premier investigating agency raids a government ministry to look for evidence of corruption.

The scandal revolves around the sale of 2G (second generation) radio spectrum to telecom companies. Companies that paid Rs1,650 crore licence fees were given 4.4 MHz of start-up spectrum for free which some of them sold at huge mark-ups, earning phenomenal profits in the process. Questions had been raised at that time about why the spectrum had not been auctioned, letting the market find its own price. The calculated loss to the government is to the tune of a whopping Rs 60,000 crore.

But while the government’s action against the telecom ministry and 10 or so companies involved in the sale is welcome, it will be hard put to explain why it had defended the allotment process so robustly last year when pointed allegations had been made. The same point has been made by Karunanidhi in his protest to the PM. Equally intriguing is the fact that Raja was re-appointed to the same ministry this time round too, when a new government could have easily reshuffled ministerial portfolios. The conclusion that there is a political element to this exercise is inescapable.

The government could start by asking the minister to step aside while the investigations are on. The politics of it should not concern the CBI; the agency must investigate the case on the facts. And the DMK should allow the law to take its own course. Its protestations will raise doubts that it has something to hide.