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Supreme Court issues notice to Raja in 2G spectrum scam | | The Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to Communications and IT Minister A. Raja in connection with the 2G spectrum scam. The apex court also slammed the
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for filing a case against unnamed officials,
and said that the investigating agency should have named them. The petitioner
wants the apex court to monitor the CBI probe or set up a Special Investigation
Team. Earlier on September 9, upping the ante against the Centre over the
appointment
of the former Telecom Secretary, P.J. Thomas, as the Central Vigilance
Commissioner
(CVC), the Bharatiya Janata Party said it was done to "cover up" the huge financial
scam in the allotment of 2G spectrum. Terming the 2G spectrum allocation to private
companies at "throwaway prices" a "maha-Bofors" scam, BJP spokesperson
Prakash
Javadekar said Thomas's appointment was done to derail the entire investigation
into the scam. Javadekar said that in its note prepared on August 12, 2010, the
Department of Telecommunications (DoT) - then headed by Thomas - raised a
query
before the Law Ministry saying that spectrum allocation was a matter of policy,
and that the CAG and the CVC had no role to play in the inquiry into it. "And
now the same person [Thomas], who earlier objected to the CVC probing the scam,
is heading the organisation...and now no one is expecting a fair inquiry into
the entire matter," Javadekar said. He said both the DoT and the Law Ministry
favoured the note prepared against the role of the CVC and the CAG, which proved
that the government purposely appointed Thomas for the cover-up. "The
Congress-led
UPA government has undermined institutions like the CAG and CVC on account of
the compulsions of coalition politics, the UPA government is under pressure to
derail the investigation," alleged Javadekar. Pointing out that A. Raja had time
and again, in his defence, claimed that he was working under the guidance of the
Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, Javadekar said: "He has made the Prime
Minister
a co-accused in the scam. The formulation of policy at the behest of Raja was
consciously and deliberately framed to cause loss to the government and gain to
private parties. But still Dr. Singh has been defending the Minister." Last month,
the Telecom Department headed by Thomas had sought the legal advisor's opinion
on whether the CAG had the authority to challenge policy decisions taken by the
government. The ministry's legal advisor said neither the CVC nor the CAG had
the authority to question the government's policy decisions.
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