Raja tries to drag Shourie in 2G scam

Former Telecom Minister A Raja today sought to drag in the 2G spectrum scam Arun Shourie, who held the same portfolio in the NDA Government, by telling a court here that both of them followed identical policy of spectrum allocation.

Raja, a lawyer by profession, himself advanced the arguments for a short while and contended that he has been singled out for the alleged wrongdoings in following the policy of first-come-first-served basis in spectrum allocation.

He said he followed the policy of granting licence to those applicants who complied first with the conditions of Letters of Intent (LoI) irrespective of their date of application.

The DMK leader claimed that the same policy was in practice in 2003 when BJP leader Arun Shourie was the Telecom Minister in the NDA government.

"In 2003 when Arun Shourie (as Telecom Minister in the NDA government) issued two LoIs simultaneously, of the two applicants, the second who complied first with the conditions of LoI was issued the licence," Raja himself submitted before special CBI Judge O P Saini.

Raja's counsel had asked him to explain the nitty gritty of the spectrum allocation policy to the judge.

"Even assuming that Raja did a wrong, I am not accepting, but just assume that I committed a criminal conspiracy or procedural error, then that has been done by Arun Shourie also," Raja said.

Raja also said, "In the past, one application or licence was processed at a time and only 3-4 players used to be there but since the government chose not to put any cap, there were so many players and 575 applications and it fell in my lap when I became the Minister."

He also sought to clarify that the issue of UAS licence did not amount to allocation of spectrum.

"There is confusion in the minds of the media, the people and the entire country that issuance of licence means allocation of spectrum. Whosoever complies with the LoI is issued a licence and then the licencee has to come up and say that I am a UAS licencee, now give me CDMA spectrum, GSM or dual technology."