He said She said

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and his team in ruling party are attacking opposition parties on their double standard and their lack of credibility. Doing such things are needed in democracy but not in an attempt to reduce the intensity of issue that country is fighting now. They could calm opposition but can not answer people on their failing in taking action in Spectrum Scam.


See Indian express article for more details.

Mocking democracy : Kapil Sibal

See the following interview from Kapil Sibal.

Q: Why was the 2G scam allowed to happen when the Prime Minister, the Law Minister and the finance ministry had expressed their reservations as early as November 2, 2007?
A: What is the 2G scam according to you? Please tell me, I want to listen to you.
Q: Wrongful allocation of resources that were anyways scarce done on the basis of bad pricing and done on the basis of a wrong system of allocation so that it went not by auction but by a first come first serve basis, which seems to have been rigged to help specific companies who turn out perhaps to be friends of the minister?
A: I am glad you set it out. Now before the UPA came to power in 2004, 52 licences were granted, on what basis?
Q: On the same basis but that was stretching back to 2001. But are you defending what Mr Raja did?
A: No I am not defending. Please I want to understand from you because nowadays we understand everything from the media. So I want to understand from you.

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What do you read from it? Kapil Sibal is trying to share some of the guilt to opposition and is equipped with talking to media. It does not hide the fact that nation lost money and corrupts need to be punished.

CBI raids Raja's house

Today CBI searched homes of A. Raja and his associates in Delhi and Tamilnadu. It has mode any arrests. It just looks like face saving for central government. It is well known that they would not get any evidence of documents or properties at this stage.



Sources:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/2G-scam-probe-CBI-questions-Raja-during-searches/Article1-636070.aspx
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/8189301/Indian-former-ministers-home-raided-in-corruption-probe.html

Spectrum scam money covers ten countries

Enforcement Directorate(ED) today submitted a report to Supreme court and told that money trail covers international ramifications. What does that mean for common public and how much can we trust ED? The money can be traced in spectrum scam since it is mostly white money and loss because of licenses given cheaply to many ineligible companies. There may be black money but 1.76 lakh crore loss we are talking is not accounting as part of loss to public exchequer.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Money-trail-in-2G-spectrum-scam-covers-10-countries-ED/articleshow/7067801.cms

NRIs sending letters to Prime Minister

"People For Loksatta" volunteers posting letters from San Diego, Sunnyvale, Los Angeles, Houston and Chicago.

What is the reason behind 1.76 lakh crores in spectrum scam

Many of you must have heard that India lost 1.76 lakh crores in spectrum licenses.There is definitely theory behind it, but it's not another politically bloated number. These are the findings of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), a government authority.

1. Number of mobile connections in 2001 was 4 million, and it increased to 350 Million in 2008. All the allocation of 122 new licenses was done based on 2001 statistics and 4 million numbers, instead of 2008 numbers. The notification was issued in 2008 and 2001 metric is used for determining cost.
2. If the prices are calculated at market prices of 2008 (on basis 3G values) , Department of Telecom (DoT) would have received Rs. 111,511 crores as against to Rs. 9,012 realized by DoT now. Licenses allocated under duel technology would have been Rs. 40526 crores as against to Rs. 3372 crores now. The total difference is at Rs. 139653 crores, which is Rs. 1.39 Lakh crores
3. Additional spectrum was allocated for existing 9 companies (not part of new licenses), and that was also done at 2001 prices. Loss from this was calculated as Rs. 36729 crores
4. The total loss from # 3 and #4 above, Rs.176382 crores which is 1.76 lakh crores

Additional findings of CAG
1. DoT did not follow the eligibility criterion set by itself for the bidding process
2. Telecom Regulatory Authority of INDIA (TRAI) recommendations were ignored
3. Bidding deadline time was shortened, without any discussion to favor few companies.

Sadly the corrupts and the culprits are not arrested yet. Please sign petition  to Prime Minister to take action and join "kill corruption - National campaign against corruption" movement.

Prime Minister knows every thing - pretending innocense is for legal reasons!

Arun Shourie recalls an incident with Vajpayee.

The prime minister of India has unlimited power. Our system is so structured that the PM knows everything. Yashwant Sinha, when he was finance minister, told me an incident. He got a message from a leader of the state that s/he wanted to see him. He asked Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee if he could can meet that person. Vajpayee said he could meet her/him.

When Sinha went to the state he met the particular leader without anyone knowing about it. He had lunch and talked about all sorts of things. At the end of it, the leader gave him an envelope. He kept it in his pocket. He came to New Delhi and only then opened it. It was a legal brief on why cases against that leader should not be pursued by the Enforcement Directorate. He put the envelope in his drawer and did nothing about it. He forgot the case.

Several days later he met Vajpayee and spoke about his meeting with the state leader. Vajpayee listened quietly and kept looking at him. At the end of the meeting he asked Sinha, 'Aur woh lifafa (what about the envelope)?'

Sinha was astonished since he had told no one about the meeting and he did not act on what was requested. Unless the prime minister deliberately shuts his eyes there is no difficulty in knowing everything. It would be incredible that the prime minister would not know. The system is so structured.

Second, all the telecom dealings were done in public. The Prime Minister's Office would certainly read the newspapers. There was so much commotion in Sanchar Bhuvan that people were beaten up the day the allotment of 2G spectrum was announced. The point is that the prime minister himself wrote a letter and as politely as possible gave instructions that please examine the issue of auctioning of spectrum and determining its price in a fair and transparent manner. And his minister disregards that. Do you think that the PM would not know that?

It was the letter signed by him that was ignored. Coalition dharna doesn't mean that I will become protector of the corrupt. I feel the prime minister must have known about the 2G issue. That's evident from all sorts of facts. Second, coalition compulsions do not give you the license to abdicate your duty.

If your minister is doing something wrong, as captain of the team, the prime minister owes the responsibility to the country to stop the minister. If the PM had confronted Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief M Karunanidhi with all the evidence, I don't imagine he would have told the PM, 'Don't take action against Raja'.

Source: http://www.rediff.com/news/report/interview-arun-shourie-on-the-real-meaning-of-the-radia-tapes1/20101201.htm

Who is this Raja - the one stole 40 billon dollors?

Do you know what India can do with 40 billion dollors lost in 2G spectrum scam.