2G scam: PM less than alert and vigilant?

The BJP has claimed that the Prime Minister was given advance information on all the major charges against A Raja. This suggests that he was aware of what Raja was doing and was either complicit or negligent.

But is that accusation fair? Can it stand scrutiny or is it nothing more than a rhetorical attack? Karan Thapar discusses this key issue with Congress MP and Spokesman, Manish Tewari, BJP MP and Spokesperson, Prakash Javadekar and the chairman of Oxus Investments, Surjit Bhalla. Below is the edited transcript of the interview. Thapar: Whilst no one could accuse the Prime Minister of corruption, there is a growing impression that he has been less than vigilant in tackling the 2G issue. In your eyes, is that a fair statement or is it one of bias? Bhalla: I think the latter. What you said is he is been less than vigilant. Now we need to go into definitions. I would say that it is highly unlikely that the PM did not know about the 2G deal and which firms were bidding for it, because this is a major policy decision. So he obviously was informed, should have been informed and I believe was informed about the entire goings on. The other thing that keeps coming up is that the equity was diluted to the foreign investors etc. Now we all know that foreign investors especially, and even a domestic investor for that matter, cannot go to the barber shop without the government knowing what he or she is doing. So therefore, to pretend that somebody didn