'Did you see my pamphlet?' Andimuthu Raja, the 2G scam-tainted DMK MP from Nilgiri, asks Rediff.com's Saisuresh Sivaswamy. 'Two things are very clear. One, that I did not have any disproportionate wealth, as per the CBI's contention before the court. And there has been no loss to the exchequer, which has been admitted by the joint secretary. Under the Prevention of Corruption Act these two things are very important, and that has been ruled out.'
Suresh Kalmadi, Kanimozhi and Andimuthu Raja -- none of whom need an introduction -- have been appointed to three standing committees. A Ganesh Nadar says they are the best fit, and explains why
DoT, has decided that it will not cancel the GSM licences of dual-technology companies.
Almost four years after savage tariff cuts, the telecom sector is slowly limping back to normalcy.
If the PM had just chosen to behave as if there wasn't anything wrong about existing systems, he wouldn't have been in such trouble today, says Mihir S Sharma
Rediff.com traces the life of Sadiq Batcha, a key aide of former telecom minister Andimuthu Raja who committed suicide on Wednesday
Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy on Tuesday alleged that Union Home Minister P Chidambaram was equally guilty as former telecom minister Andimuthu Raja in the 2G spectrum allocation scam since all decisions were taken by the two together.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday afternoon arrested tainted former Union telecom minister A Raja, his brother A K Perumal, along with his aide R K Chandolia and former telecom secretary Siddharth Behuria in connection with the 2G Spectrum scam.
After a drubbing in the Bihar assembly polls, Krishnakumar Padmanabhan finds that Congress workers are sceptical about Rahul Gandhi's charisma working in the TN polls.
In DMK circles, Raja is seen as the top-most mobiliser of funds for elections. 'The leadership sees him as having done more for the party from Delhi than even Murasoli Maran.'
'He is trying to divert attention. The media is creating unnecessary hype. When Raja says he was doing things at PMO's behest it does not necessarily mean that the prime minister is involved. Dr Manmohan Singh is a person who needs to be revered than merely praised,' says Constitutional expert Fali S Nariman.
The Delhi Auto Expo has grown into a high-profile event where car makers, Indian and foreign, announce new models and reach out to customers. Business Standard tracks the meticulous planning that goes into the event.
The issue of corruption will be tested when the results of Tamil Nadu assembly elections would be declared on May 13.
Rediff.com has in its possession a copy of the CBI chargesheet.
As the 49-year-old Lok Sabha MP stepped out of Gate no 4 of the Tihar jail, he was received by DMK MP from Kanyakumari J Halen Davidson.
There is definitely a mystery behind Sadiq Batcha's death, says J Gopikrishnan, the Pioneer daily journalist who broke the 2G scam story.
Vicky Nanjappa analyses how the death of Sajid Batcha could impact the ongoing Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the 2G Spectrum scam
Dr V Dekal, who heads the department of forensic sciences at the Madras Medical College, said he had put in his papers on March 3, over a fortnight before Batcha's suicide, to contest the Tamil Nadu assembly elections.
Hyperactive Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal -- busy trying to 'rescue' the UPA government in the 2G scam ever since he took over after Andimuthu Raja resigned in November -- finds himself caught up in another spectrum scam of the Indian Space Research Organisation's gift of 70Mhz at throwaway prices to its former officer in 2005 that is now turning out to be a Rs 2-lakh crore (Rs 2 trillion) scandal.
Andimuthu Raja's love for poetry is believed to have got him close to Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam supremo M Karunanidhi for a blazing political career but the script went awry in a rare case of a former union minister having to undergo the ignominy of arrest consumed by the 2G Spectrum scam.
While the 2G Spectrum case will go on, politically the situation is a little more complicated than that.
Since Dr Singh did not explicitly tell A Raja to stop, the minister sped down his chosen road, says T V R Shenoy.
Operators say 10-paisa, 25-paisa calls not possible.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has asked Communications Minister Andimuthu Raja to complete the auction of the third generation (3G) spectrum within the agreed deadline (February 15), so that the revenue from it can be reflected in the Union Budget for 2009-10. Mukherjee had earmarked Rs 30,000 crore as revenue from 3G auction, which has already been delayed by a year, in the Budget.
The much-awaited guidelines for the 3G policy will be out this month, assured Communications Minister Andimuthu Raja today. Speaking on the sidelines of a conference, the minister said, "It has been delayed for some time. I will ensure that the policy is out by the 30th of June."
Mishra, a 1967 batch Indian Administrative Service officer from the Uttar Pradesh cadre, has served in various administrative field positions.
'At least three top bureaucrats have been declared guilty in recent years in connection with scams where they had no pecuniary benefit.' 'But in the telecom case, a money trail is declared irrelevant because no scam has been proved in the first place.' 'Fair enough; so we must punish illegality without criminality, but ignore possible criminality as suggestive of illegality,' points out T N Ninan.
His current predicament stems from a combination of personal failing and circumstance
The judgment in the 2G case is a huge, huge, indictment of the criminal investigation and justice system, says R Jagannathan.
'If anyone is able to understand the importance of Modi's endeavours to revive the economy -- even against opposition from sections of his own saffron brotherhood -- it is the former prime minister,' says Amulya Ganguli.
If Reliance Jio resets the rules of the game with low voice and data tariffs, most incumbents will find themselves back to square one.
Though Indians were no strangers to scams, spectrum loss was beyond their wildest imagination.
The man who led this journey is 50-year-old Kalanithi Maran, chairman and managing director of the Sun Group.
'Good politics is not just staying in power. You cannot sacrifice everything at the altar of trying to ensure the coalition remains in power.'
A look at the life and times of maverick businessman Chinnakannan Sivasankaran
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