Former telecom minister and senior BJP leader Arun Shourie on Wednesday said the Supreme Court?s suggestion to widen the ambit of the investigation into the 2G spectrum to include allocations made since 2001 would ?nail the myth? being spread by A Raja that he was only following in the footsteps of his predecessors.
The BJP, which was in power during that period, too said it had no ?problems? with a wider probe and scrutiny of the decisions taken from 2001. ?The Supreme Court?s observation should be honoured. We have said it earlier also and in the all-party meeting as well that we have no problems. We have told the Government that if you want to make inquiries, do it,? senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu said.
Talking to The Indian Express, Shourie said he would only be happy if the investigating agencies look into the decisions taken since 2001 because that would once and for all ?nail the myth being propagated by Raja and his lawyers that he was following in the footsteps of his predecessors.? He, however, noted that such a move should not result in delay of the prosecution of Raja. Shourie said contrary to what Raja has been claiming, he had not followed the first come first serve principle. ?He changed it arbitrarily. He changed the basis of first come first serve principle after it had been applied. What he had done has no relationship at all with the policies and procedures followed at that time (during the NDA period),? he said.
?First it was time and date of application. Then he (Raja) changed it to the time and date at which the conditions specified in the letter of intent will be fulfilled. One of the conditions, as the CAG has observed, was that bring banker?s drafts of Rs 1,650 crore in 41 minutes. We did not do all that,? he said. Shourie said the first come first serve basis was applied during the NDA rule across sectors and it was applied as a thumb rule. ?The circumstances now and then were totally different. The telecom sector had not been liberated and mobile telephony was in its early stages,? he said. The former Telecom Minister, however, was apprehensive that a lengthy probe could delay the prosecution of A Raja.
The main opposition, meanwhile, stuck to its JPC demand. Having asked PAC chairman Murli Manohar Joshi to cut down his pro-activism and go slow with the PAC?s inquiry into the 2G spectrum allocation, the BJP tried to wriggle out of the embarrassing situation. Naidu said there is no conflict between PAC examining the 2G issue and opposition?s demand for JPC.