Prime Minister Manmohan Singh?s assurance that action would be taken against Union telecommunications minister A Raja if any evidence of corruption was found against him has not found any takers in the Opposition. The CPI(M) has demanded that Raja be asked to quit the Union Cabinet on the basis of extensive documentary proof of a scam in the sale of 2G spectrum. The party maintained that the presence of the minister as the head of a department where an enquiry was being conducted against him would thwart an honest investigation.
In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury has also demanded that ?immediate steps should be taken to recover lost and spectrum fees of about Rs 1,90,000 crores by using the 3G license figures as the benchmark.?
?Looking at the revenue which the government has managed to garner after the auction of 3G spectrum, there should be no doubt in anyone?s mind about the extent of the scam,? he said. He added that by using the Trai directive as an excuse, the Union minister for telecommunications was trying to mislead the people. ?The telecom minister was given explicit recommendation by the Trai in August 2007 (section 2.73) that the entry fee existing then based on 2001 prices was not realistic and there a need to reassess entry fee through market mechanism,? he said. ?It is pertinent to point out that once DoT had made a referrence to the TRAI (April 2007) and TRAI had given its recommendations (August 2007) it overides any earlier policy. Therefore the minister cannot mix and match from earlier policy and the TRAI recommendation as it suits him,? he added.
?In such a situation the Cabinet as a whole has to take responsibility,? he said. He added that he hoped the Prime Minister would take action before the commencement of the monsoon session of Parliament. ?We hope that A Raja is removed from the Cabinet before the monsoon session, otherwise we are also prepared to raise the matter in Parliament as well,? he said.