New Delhi: In a tell-all book likely to be released within a month of his acquittal in the 2G spectrum cam case, former telecom minister A Raja has taken to task former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the then Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai.
In his book 2G Saga Unfolds, a copy of which was accessed by CNN-News18’s Executive Editor Bhupendra Chaubey, Raja claims that Manmohan Singh was repeatedly misinformed by his advisers and despite approving Raja’s telecom policy, chose to remain a passive observer even when the DMK leader was arrested and jailed for 15 months.
Manmohan Singh’s silence was like “silencing of our nation’s collective conscience,” Raja claims. He also implies that telecom lobbies had influence over the PMO.
However, his choicest criticisms were reserved for CAG Rai, who he says behaved like “a cat that shuts its eyes and then declares the universe is dark.”
“It is my conviction consequent to the whole experience of the trial that there was political motivation to kill UPA-II and Rai’s was the shoulder on which the gun was placed,” he says.
Raja says that Rai’s report, which formed the basis of the alleged 2G spectrum scam that took the wind out of the Manmohan-led UPA II government, was a “a mixture of inappropriate legal interpretations, incongruous comparisons and flippant allegations.”
“Rai was the ‘sutradhaar’ who created the devious apparition… His report is mere trash, which is unanimously deemed fit for the dustbin and his statements would not have stood test of cross-examination,” Raja alleges, adding that the former CAG should be called as a witness in the criminal case filed against him.
The front and back cover of A Raja's book on 2G scam. (Photo: CNN-News18)
Raja also claims that former PM Singh didn’t have any clue about the CBI raids with regard to the spectrum allocation. “On October 22, 2009 (after CBI raided telecom ministry and offices of some telecom operators) I met the Prime Minister in his office in South Block at around 7.00 pm. T.K.A. Nair (the then principal secretary in the PMO) was also present. People will find it hard to believe that the PM was quite surprised when I told him about the CBI raids,” Raja writes in his book.
Raja claims that as the telecom minister in UPA II, he fought against telecom lobbies to draft a just spectrum auction policy. But then one day he received a letter from the PMO, as the policy draft was in its final stages. The contents of that letter matched the business interests of the lobbies, he says in the book.
“This makes me wonder whether this letter was indeed drafted by the PMO…It is still a puzzle to me as to what could have prompted the PM to send that letter to me…With all due respect, I am of the opinion that such a letter bearing the PM’s signature should never have been sent,” he says.
Raja writes that he felt wounded by the words used by Manmohan Singh in that letter.
Raja described several meetings he had with the former Prime Minister. “At one instance, Raja claims, ‘Prime Minister shifted in his seat, looked askance at me…” he says.
The DMK leader also claims that the Prime Minister’s Office was “monitoring this matter and following up on it, proving false the allegation that the PM was misled or kept in the dark.”
Raja also mentions how Manmohan Singh privately confessed to have been influenced by articles appearing in the press.
The final criticism Raja levels at the former Prime Minister is that he never came to Raja’s help despite being in the loop on telecom ministry’s decisions all the while.
“Unfortunately, neither the Prime Minister nor the Finance Minister came forward...to back my legitimate position…Dr Manmohan Singh’s palpable silence in relation to defending my wholly justified actions especially when the governing bodies (CVC, CBI, JPC, Supreme Court) were refusing to hear my defence felt to me like a silencing of our nation’s collective conscience,” he says.
"I came to Delhi from Chennai on the evening of the 14th of November. When I landed in Delhi around 9.00 pm, T.R. Baalu informed me that I could resign as per the advice of our party leader. While on the way to my official residence 2A, Motilal Nehru Marg I sought an appointment with the PM. I called in my PA, prepared my resignation letter and then went to the PM’s residence. The Prime Minister appeared to be gloomy and perturbed. He offered me tea and I handed him my resignation letter," he says.
"He spoke dejectedly about the whole situation, the oral observations of the Supreme Court and about his name having been unduly dragged down. The Prime Minister touched upon the introduction of 3G service to the nation and agreed with the impropriety of the CAG’s views. While I was clear and firm as I spoke to him, I was unable to make out anything from the vexed-look of the Prime Minister. Was it due to the condemning remarks from the Supreme Court or due to his assuming that there were irregularities in the files in a big way? I was not sure and could not guess," he says.
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