Tag Archives: RTI

Should PM’s Role In 2G Scam Be Probed?

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The latest 2G fire has reached the Prime Minister’s doors. With the Home Minister and then Finance Minister P Chidambaram already facing heat over his alleged negligence in the 2G scam, the focus has now shifted to PM himself. The 2G scam is getting increasingly uncomfortable for Singh. The documents obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) act clearly say that Singh had intervened to ensure that the 2G spectrum pricing would be the Telecom Ministry’s prerogative. At this stage, is it really impertinent to probe the role of our Prime Minister?

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Maran’s Letter To PM

A letter written by former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran in 2006 to PM has opened a Pandora’s Box for Singh.

In January 2006, Singh had approved a Group of Ministers (GoM) to look after the additional spectrum for private telecom players. The Groups terms of reference included the price of the 2G spectrum. A protest meeting by Maran with Prime Minister in February and a letter by the former Telecom Minister forced the PM to dilute the agenda of the GoM, and leave the pricing issue exclusively in the hands of the Telecom Ministry.

 In the letter dated February 28, 2006, Maran had asked Singh to recall their meeting on February 1, when he urged the PM to dilute the terms of reference, so that the pricing issue would not come under GoM. The letter also reminded Singh of his assurance that, “the terms of reference of the GoM would be drawn up exactly the way we wanted, which was to focus only on the issue of vacation of spectrum.”

It is clear that the PM was arm twisted into accepting Maran’s demand, which later led to one of country’s worst scams under Raja.

Apart from his complacency in the pricing issue, Singh has also come under the scanner for ignoring the advice of then Foreign Minister Pranab Mukharjee.

PM Ignored Pranab Mukharjee’s Warning

The PM and the government are currently battling hard to counter the note sent by Pranab Mukherjee‘s ministry to the Prime Minister’s office that questions P Chidambaram’s actions. Another letter by Mukherjee, discovered under the RTI act has added to woes of the Prime Minister.

 In December 26, 2007, the then Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee as the head of GoM had written to the PM warning him of the consequences of an incorrect policy. Mukherjee had cautioned Singh on the problems of not adhering to a clear-cut strategy. He stressed that it was essential for the department of telecom (DoT) to issue the new norms immediately so that the spectrum allocation is done in a transparent manner. He made these observations 15 days before Raja made the controversial allocations of spectrum licences to private companies.

The Prime Minister chose to ignore the counsel and allowed the Telecom Ministry to act on its own whims.

Kanimozi Had Threatened To Call PM as a Witness

The RTI revealed blunders on the part of the PM seem to substantiate Kanimozi’s claims that Prime Minister Manmohan

 Singh and P Chidambaram were indeed present during the 2G spectrum license allocation and were aware of the whole process. Senior counsel Sushil Kumar, appearing for Kanimozi, told a special CBI court last month that the Prime Minister and the then Finance minister P. Chidambaram had complete knowledge of the 2G license allocations, and had decided along with former telecom minister A. Raja not to auction these.
PM Can No Longer Hide Behind Coalition Politics
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The Prime Minister can no longer hide behind the compulsions of coalition politics. The prime minister of India has  absolute powers in running the country. If Maran or Raja had flouted the ethical norms, he should have acted against them. Singh instead chose to be a mute spectator to the crimes of his ministers. The personal integrity of the PM cannot absolve him of his greater responsibilities. At a time when the country is sparing nobody for corruption, Singh could find himself facing a probe, leading to major political repercussions in India.

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Union Ministers Spent 42 Crore on Foreign Travel in 2010-11

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Government has spent nearly 42 crore on foreign visits by Union Ministers during the last one year. The information provided in an RTI reply shows that while Cabinet Ministers spent Rs 37.16 crore on their foreign visits, their junior colleagues, Ministers of State, spent about Rs 4.76 crore on these visits bringing the total travel expenditure to Rs 41.82 crore for the year 2010-11.

The Cabinet Secretariat has given these consolidated figures of foreign visits expenses incurred by the Ministers to activist S C Agrawal after instructions from the Chief Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra who directed it to make the disclosure.

In the case, Agrawal had sought to know from the Cabinet Secretariat the travel details of Union Ministers for the last three years, but he was told that information was “scattered” across different ministries and he would have to collect it from them separately.

When the matter reached the Central Information Commission, the Cabinet Secretariat reiterated its position.

The Secretariat also noted that to collate the information, a large volume of records and documents would have to be scrutinised which would disproportionately divert the resources of the public authority.

“While we tend to agree with the submission made by the respondents (Cabinet Secretariat), we think it would be in the interest of transparency if some key information about the domestic and international travel by Union ministers could be maintained centrally in Cabinet Secretariat itself, especially since the pay and accounts office under it is responsible for all accounting details for payment of the salary and reimbursement of their travel expenditure,” CIC Satyananda Mishra had said in his order.

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