Friday 22 December 2017

2G Scam ... Where is it?

In the infamous 2G SCAM case 2011, that catapulted Modi & BJP into power in 2014 dislodging the corruption tainted UPA government of Manmohan Singh, the CBI Court Judge OP Saini delivered judgement on Dec 21, 2017 acquitting all the accused persons and companies criticising the prosecution for pursuing the case in a disinterested and diffident manner and observed that prosecution has failed to prove any of the charges beyond reasonable doubt. He also held that there was no criminality or conspiracy in spectrum allotment and said some people created a "scam by artfully arranging a few selected facts and exaggerating things beyond recognition to astronomical levels".

It was seven years ago when CAG report on the 2G scam giving the then UPA government jitters, which ultimately led to its downfall. CAG had stated that licenses had been issued to ineligible applicants who had deliberately suppressed facts, disclosed incomplete information, submitted fictitious documents and used fraudulent means for getting licenses and thereby access to spectrum. The licence holders had sold these stakes to the Indian/foreign companies at high premium within a short time. The premium earned by these new companies was estimated to be the true value of the spectrum. In a free and fair bidding process, these profits should have gone to the government. CAG in its report had never stressed on presumptive loss figure of Rs 1.76 lakh crores that was based on the 3G price discovered in 2010.
  • Special judge OP Saini came down heavily on the CBI, charging the agency with shoddiness and approaching the case in fits and starts. He had absolutely no hesitation in holding that the prosecution miserably failed to prove any charge against any of the accused, made in its well choreographed charge sheet.
  • Special judge remarked that everybody was going by public perception created by rumour, gossip and speculation. However, public perception has no place in judicial proceedings.
  • Though the Supreme Court had cancelled 122 licences allocated declaring them illegal, a special CBI court today said "a huge scam was seen by everyone where there was none."
  • The judge laments the role of "prominent public-spirited persons" who went on and on about wrongdoing but had no evidence to submit. Apparently this means that nobody had any good or first-hand evidence in his possession". 
  • Dismissing the allegations, the judge said that for “the last about seven years on all working days, summer vacation included, I religiously sat in the open Court from 10 am to 5 pm, awaiting someone with some legally admissible evidence in his possession, but all in vain. Not a single soul turned up.”
  • The biggest beneficiary of the alleged 2G scam is Mr. Narendra Modi as he became the Prime Minister and lots of people believed the allegations. Today, the former CAG Vinod Rai is one of the strong advisors of the Modi government, posted on various boards and organisations and has been rewarded for what he has done.
  • What is illegal from administrative law point of view may not necessarily be an offence from a criminal court’s perspective. 
  • The Supreme Court declared in 2012 that the allocation of 2G spectrum by UPA government was illegal and an arbitrary exercise of power and cancelled all 122 telecom licences allotted. This hurt India’s competitiveness & saddled banks with Rs. 4 lakh crore of debt resulting from licence cancellations & auctions. 
  • It was a policy decision taken by the then administration, and policy decisions do not have to be always right and there is room for error and improvement. The SC judgement of cancellation was always hasty, wrong and unjustified, and caused huge losses, damaged reputations and caused economic crises. You can be sure that this will be added ground for proceeding against India in the BIT Arbitrations. The lesson is what the SC told us many years ago, that courts should be slow to interfere in economic and policy decisions, said Ramji Srinivasan, senior advocate, Supreme Court.
  • The CAG's use of the word ‘presumptive loss’ has left a question mark on the CAG’s credibility which is an act of ethical wrong doing on a gigantic scale. The former CAG, Vinod Rai's twisted logic produced a figure of Rs 1.76 lakh crores notional loss to the exchequer has not played by the book. He subjected the polity to great convulsions resulting in huge and unquantifiable losses in terms of businesses and investment withheld. Many more reputations and myths would come unravelling. 
  • It is said that the folklore about corruption is bigger than the actual incidence of corruption.  Could this be true of the 2G ‘scam’ as well?
  • The Indian economy is yet to recover not just from the SC's hasty cancellation of 122 licenses, but also from the public hysteria and moral panic that marked the period. It is that which created policy paralysis and the investment crisis that continues to this day and not any supposed corruption.
  • Industry analysts said the apex court’s 2010 ruling had led to massive job losses, closure of several businesses and value destruction of assets worth thousands of crores. The 2G spectrum scam brought the entire industry to its knees. Now the court says no one is responsible for it. Its a bizarre situation and gives the affected operators an opportunity to seek compensation.
  • Former PM Minister Manmohan Singh said  'a massive propaganda was unleashed against my government over the 2G spectrum allocation. The judgment speaks for itself.'
  • Arun Jaitley said the special CBI court’s acquittal of all accused in the 2G scam should not be treated as a “badge of honour.” If this is not, then 'what is badge of honour.'
  • Reminding BJP that it had pegged its campaign against the UPA government on the 2G scam, the Congress demanded an apology for ruining careers, companies and blocking investments to the country. PM Modi, FM Jaitley and other BJP leaders must apologise to the country. BJP stands exposed today before the country.
  • A war of words has broken out between the UPA and the NDA leaders over the verdict and its political ramifications which will only intensify till 2019. Suddenly, the sinners are looking less than sinners and the saints no longer come across so saintly.
  • The CBI and ED will appeal against the special court’s judgment acquitting all the accused in the 2G scam case. But without tangible evidence what is the use of appeal?
  • The 2012 SC judgment was on the question of procedural irregularity and of civil liability. The trial court judgments in the CBI and ED cases were concerned with charges of criminal and corruption charges and prosecution cannot use the 2012 SC judgment as evidence of criminality in an appeal in a higher court.
  • The scale and scope of the scam claimed by the innumerate dramatis personae of that period on news television was always imaginary. Lakhs of crores were not misappropriated. Instead there was the sort of misuse of process that was common before the UPA, common during the UPA, and continues to be common now, even under a supposedly clean government. Of course there are no large-scale scams of the scale that was claimed for 2G under Narendra Modi! Because, it turns out, there weren't under Manmohan Singh either. At a stroke, the sole and solitary claim that Modi had to his running a better government than Manmohan stands extinguished.
  • History will not be kind to these forces of disinformation, who with willful ignorance or malice created a perception of an epochal, history-breaking, record-setting scam. Who will be held accountable for the public perception created by rumour, gossip and speculation? Somebody must. 
  • This shows that how battles won in Supreme Court are often lost in courts below, said senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan.
  • Politically, Congress will not only emerge stronger but also assertive and aggressive in the run up to 2019 elections tearing into Modi's blunders and lies. Modi is now realizing value of his allies for continuing in as PM.


On any issue public decides first, court decides last. 
Media influences public opinion.




Corruption is omnipresent in India. Nothing moves without it. The root cause is the mind boggling political spending, greedy businesses and irresponsible bureaucracy apart from indifferent public. No saints left in India. Everybody is corrupt in one sense or other. But scams are different. While corruption is slow poison, scams are akin to cyanide. Today BJP is most cash rich party and its spending in recent UP and Gujarat elections is unprecedented. All that money is neither accounted nor from contributions.

The perception of 2G Scam is clearly visible, the failure of prosecution by CBI & ED (directly works under PM Modi & FM Jaitley) is easily palpable. The consequences of 2G Scam for the nation is humongous for which Congress and BJP and their leaderships are accountable. Price is being paid by people of India similar to or even worse than Bofor's scandal of mid eighties. Politics by Modi & co. for dislodging this case is not ruled out. Some of the acquitted are Modi's friends and Modi making unscheduled visit to ailing DMK leader Karunanidhi points needle of suspicion towards Modi too. Modi seems to be interested in only winning election after election and saffronisation of India and any other thing is just a lip service. In recent Gujarat elections BJP suffered erosion of over 10% votes and same thing is bound to happen in 2018 state elections and 2019 general elections. Without strong allies, Modi continuing as PM beyond 2019 is ruled out. This is visible from Modi's sudden change in attitude towards friends like Shiv Sena, TDP, TRS, BJD, DMK etc. Development and reforms are bound to slow down or even take back seat. 

In in the intervening period several lives were jailed and harassed, families suffered, companies incurred losses or even wound up, investors lost money, employees lost their jobs. Who is responsible for the mess?


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