Fwd: Who is that, Mr PM?
Gajanan Deshpande
were in place and approved by the TRAI’. This is how the Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh defended A Raja, his telecom minister, the
prime suspect in the CBI probe into the 2G cell phone licence case. If
this were the prime minister’s defence of Raja on May 24, see how
offensive was Raja was to the prime minister on October 28, 2009, when
the CBI had raided the Department of Telecommunications that was in
his ministry leading to demands for his resignation. Asking ‘why
should I resign”, Raja said, ‘besides following my predecessors and
the solicitor general’s advice, I did it in consultation with the
prime minister’. Far from not denying it then or later, on May 24, the
prime minister virtually confirms what Raja had said then. Is there
any difference between Raja saying he ‘consulted the prime minister’
and the prime minister saying he had ‘discussed the issue with Raja’?
So long as Raja had discussed the matter with the prime minister prior
to the act it is — and cannot be anything less than — consultation.
Raja is right. But is the prime minister right?
The issue in question is whether the price that the government asked
and got for the spectrum for 2G cell phone licences issued in the year
2007 is of correct value. Much of the discourse on 2G spectrum fraud
is taking place without most of the public knowing what is ‘spectrum’
and what is ‘2G’. So a break here to know what is Spectrum and what is
2G? Take 2G first. 2G is the short form for ‘Second Generation’. All
cell phones, now used by vegetable vendors to company executives, are
based on 2G technology. There was no 1G (First Generation) technology
as such earlier. When the new technology — the cell phone technology
that we use now — came in and superseded the existing one, the new one
became known as 2G, and so the existing one, as 1G. What is the
difference between the two? A simple analogy is: 1G cell phone is
similar to Paramount Airways, flying locally and with small capacity
planes. The 1G cell phone cannot carry massive calls, nor have roaming
to connect to far off places. 2G cell phone is like Air India
operating jumbo jets. It can carry a large traffic of calls and
directly connect to anywhere in the world. But like all aircraft fly
in the air, in both 1G and 2G, all cell phone calls travel through
airwaves, that is spectrum. Spectrum is like airwave highway. Even
though this highway exists in space, it is attached to the earth. And
like the land, which is in short supply, spectrum is also in short
supply. So the issue is about its pricing.2G cell phone technology
entered India in 1995, beginning with the metros. Every cell phone
licensee, other than those for metros, had paid huge fees by bids to
enter the business. In 2001, having missed the bus first, the Reliance
group made a backdoor burst into the cell phone business feigning as
if it was using cordless phones in the streets, not cell phones! It
did so without paying any fee. The NDA government was caught without a
rule to stop this anarchy and was forced to negotiate with all to make
a fixed licence fee policy, with a revenue sharing model. Then, the
total cell phone user population in India was some 36 million. In
three years the number topped 75 million. Today, it is over 594
million, with March 2010 alone adding over 20 million. Now, to the
issue of eleven 2G-cell phone licences in 2007. The first point to
note is that in 2007, the Indian cell phone business was the fastest
growing in the world. It was drawing huge investments into the
country. It was at that time that Raja was proposing to issue 11 new
licences, including spectrum, for a measly sum of Rs 1,650 crore per
licence. This was on the basis of the spectrum value in 2001 when the
cell phone user population was about a sixth of the size in 2007. The
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India headed by an honest civil
servant, Nripendra Misra, had openly come out and said that spectrum
value in 2007 would not be less than Rs 6,000-8,000 crore, that is at
least four to five times the value at which Raja had proposed to sell.
Yet, the minister said the new licences (at 1/5 its value) would be
given on ‘first-come-first-served basis’ and the cut off date would be
October 1, 2007. Suddenly he turned around and said that the cut off
date would end six days earlier, on September 25. The crowd that had
gathered at the minister’s office on that day with each one jogging to
be the first to get the licences was like the crowd of poor women that
normally gathers in our middle level towns to collect the limited
number of saris distributed free of cost. But, unlike the free sari
crowd, the cell phone licence seeking crowd that included the richest
in India, and like the former it went physical, many gate crashed,
some in full suits got crushed between gates closing at 5 pm on
September 25 with one foot in and one out. The only consolation was
that there was no death in the stampede as happens in the free sari
events. All this happened to the view of the world. The prime
minister, Raja says, was consulted on this model!Every streetlight in
Delhi knew that the difference of Rs 5,000-6,000 crore per licence or
Rs 60,000-70,000 crore was shared among different players. Raja did
not dole out each licence valued at Rs 8,000 crore for Rs 1,650 crore
secretly. He did it in the view of all, including the prime minister.
Yes, it was daylight corruption. But Raja was too small to do it all
for himself or all by himself. Nevertheless when the CBI was set upon
Raja, as it often happens in politics, he was left to defend himself.
So he went on the offensive and brought in the prime minister. And see
how the prime minister without whose knowledge the CBI could not have
got into the act is now defending Raja with tail between his legs. And
he flips in 2007, flops in 2009 and flips in 2010 — that is, he okays
Raja first, puts the CBI on to Raja next and backs Raja later! He now
says what Raja said in 2007, namely that he had acted on TRAI advice.
But the TRAI chairman had openly said then that the value of each 2G
licence was Rs 6,000-8,000 crore. The prime minister further says that
it would have been unfair to ask the new entrants to pay that much
more. Does the prime minister know that spectrum to three old players
too was doled out at the same discounted rate as the new entrants? Why
does the prime minister, who put the CBI after Raja, now back Raja
blindly? This prime minister is not, and will never be, a suspect
here. And Raja is too small to be the sole beneficiary. QED: There
must be a principal beneficiary more powerful whom the prime minister
is duty bound to defend. He must know who that is.
com...@gurumurthy.net
http://expressbuzz.com/opinion/columnists/who-is-that-mr-pm/176343.html
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Gajanan S. Deshpande