Facing allegations of irregularities in spectrum allotment, telecom minister A Raja on Friday hit out at the BJP saying free distribution of radio frequency among operators during the National Democratic Alliance regime may have cost the country over Rs 1.6 lakh crore (Rs 1.6 trillion).
Alleging that the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance regime had distributed for free, 250 mega hertz of spectrum among the telecom operators, he told reporters, "The scam during the NDA regime could be worth much more than Rs 1.6 lakh crore."
Asked about demands for his resignation, he replied: "I will not step down." Raja debunked charges of Rs 60,000 crore (Rs 600 billion) spectrum scam levelled by BJP against him and said, "Ours is a government that has followed all rules to the letter and spirit by following the recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India."
Pooh-poohing BJP leader Arun Jaitely's allegation, he said, "The BJP leader himself had defended a major operator in court. . . During the NDA regime, 250 MHz of spectrum was distributed among the operators without any charge. 900 bands of spectrum, which was not to have been allocated, was given as additional spectrum... This is the biggest scam."
Raja charged the NDA regime with reducing licence fees several times and accused it of ignoring rules in allotment of spectrum.
"Whereas there was no provision for giving spectrum beyond 4.4 MHz to any single operator, the then government distributed this frequency much beyond this limit and it did not get any revenue share when the spectrum was given beyond 8-10 MHz," the minister said.
At the HT Leadership Summit on Friday, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee came to Raja's defence, saying allegations of corruption was not proof of corruption.
The opposition parties have been calling for Raja's resignation ever since CBI searched offices of the telecom ministry and some private mobile operators last week over allegations that spectrum was allocated to new operators at dirt-cheap prices, causing a loss of over Rs 20,000 crore (Rs 200 billion) to the exchequer.
BJP refutes A Raja's allegations against NDA, Jaitley
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday refuted the accusations of Telecom Minister A Raja against the National Democratic Alliance government and senior party leader Arun Jaitley, saying that he was speaking "in desperation" and demanded that he be sacked for alleged discrepancies in 2G Spectrum allotment.
"A Raja is speaking in desperation and indulging in
falsehood. The core question is if 3G Spectrum can be
auctioned why was 2G spectrum not auctioned to get the best
price as suggested by (telecom regulator) TRAI," BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told PTI.
Raja had earlier in the day alleged that the erstwhile BJP-led NDA government had distributed free spectrum to operators. He called it the "biggest ever scam" and said it had deprived the exchequer of over Rs 160,000 crore in revenue.
He also accused Jaitley, who has called for his resignation, of favouring major operators during the NDA rule and also defending one of them in the high court.
"Raja has no explanations to all the charges (against him) and is only making baseless allegations against BJP and Jaitley," Prasad said.
The Rajya Sabha MP accused Raja of giving 2G spectrum in 2007 at 2001 prices though the "telecom sector has grown phenomenally" since.
"Raja should be sacked immediately," he said.
