2G Scam: Beneficiaries of the scam which was not there

The following are some of the prime beneficiaries of the 2G Scam propaganda. The 2G Scam case was described by CBI Court's Special Judge O.P. Saini as a scam, that was not there.

• Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India since 2014.
  He was the then BJP CM of Gujarat. His mainstay in 2014 election campaign was anti-corruption and leaned heavily on 2G Scam and Coalgate, among many others scams and reaped rich dividend.
• Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Minister of Delhi since 2015.
  He was Joint Commissioner, Income Tax, New Delhi till 2006
• Kiran Bedi, Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry
  She resigned from IPS in 2007, after she was denied Delhi Police Commissioner, two years ahead of her retirement. She was BJP's CM candidate in 2015 Delhi elections but lost to AAP. In 2016, she was appointed as the LG of Puducherry.
• Vinod Rai, CAG (2008-13)
  Today he holds (i) BCCI Administrator (ii) Special Auditor for financial irregularities in Padmanabhaswamy Temple, Trivandrum (iii) First Chairman of the Banks Board Bureau, which will advise the government on top-level PSU bank appointments etc.
• Arnab Goswami, then Times Now TV's news anchor.
  Today he is Managing Director, Editor-in-Chief and Co-founder of Republic TV. Other co-founders are his wife Samyabrata Ray and Rajeev Chandrasekhar, BJP MP.

In Dec 2017, Special Judge O.P. Saini said the CBI and the ED had failed to provide sufficient evidence to prove the charges against 33 persons named in the case that contributed to the Congress-led UPA' electoral loss in 2014. The judge stated that the charge sheet is based mainly on misreading, selective reading, non-reading and out of the context reading of official records while there is no evidence on the record produced before the court indicating any criminality in the acts allegedly committed by the accused persons etc. 

There is no question that corruption existed while doling out 2G licenses then. Nothing has happened on merit, in any capital, without kickbacks since 50 years. Without substantial evidence talking about this corruption leads us to nowhere. It is mere waste of time and energy. The fact that Modi and his CBI has not even filed appeal in higher court on this judgment, even after 4/5 months, indicates acceptance of Special Judge O.P. Saini's scathing remarks while dismissing the case.

Vinod Rai's cushy jobs

Read the source article

The question is then CAG between 2008-13, Vinod Rai, holding constitutional position appointed by UPA exceeded his brief by publishing 2G Scam with humongous corruption figures of Rs. 180,000 crores without any substance or basis but also published booklets and distributed free of charge to all MPs to rake in Parliament which eventually was exploited by BJP, Modi, Arnab Goswami and many more. CBI, working directly under Modi could file in its charge sheet, in the 2G Scam case, corruption to the extent of Rs.30,000 crores only which was torn apart by the CBI Court Judge that not a single document nor an evidence was submitted by CBI or anyone to the court in the 2G Scam case for six long years. Vinod Rai, even though a retired person, kept stoic silence thereafter. Why?

While no one will be saint to dole out licenses without kickbacks, then and now as well, it was Vinod Rai who did the damage to UPA, Sonia Gandhi, MMS and Congress benefiting BJP, Modi etc. How come Supreme Court remembers only Vinod Rai every time and three times simultaneously to appoint him for what ever the work available with it? Is he the only competent person in whole India? After all, he is only an IAS officer without any specialized qualification but only long experience in Delhi corridors. As far as my knowledge and experience goes, Delhi will never come to my doorstep, no matter how much talented I am, but I must lick their boots to get any posting. Recollect shunting out of Amartya Sen and Raghuram Rajan by Modi administration, ruthlessly.

There is no question that Vinod Rai has RSS & BJP inclinations, despite licking boots of then FM P.Chidambaram to get CAG posting and then doing enormous damage to them. If not, why Vinod Rai hasn't criticized Modi & BJP during past 4 years, even once, despite enormous damages inflicted on the nation by Modi & BJP?

Vinod Rai: The culprit of 2G fiasco

Although corruption existed in 2G spectrum allocation, it was not certainly to the mythical proportion  (Rs. 1,76,000 crores) as Mr. Vinod Rai said. If this was in US, Mr. Rai probably would have been cooling his heals in jail. Not surprisingly, in India he has been rewarded in India with post retirement assignments which only affirms that he is a BJP's stooge.

VINOD RAI, THE CULPRIT

• Vinod Rai was then serving his central posting under the Finance Ministry, and following his retirement from IAS in 2008, it was P Chidambaram, the then finance minister who appointed him as the CAG. 
• It was during his six-year tenure that the CAG blew the lid off what came to be known as the 2G scam, Coalgate scam, CWG scam, lapses in Air India Ltd ’s acquisition of aircraft, holes in defence spending, the sale of sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh, and anomalies in the award of contracts to exploit natural gas reserves. These audit reports had impacted functioning of the then Congress-led UPA government.
• Forbes described Rai as being among that "rare breed of civil servants who knows how to get work done in the government." The Business Standard reported that “this was the first time the apex auditor had shown the courage to take on the mighty”.
• Vinod Rai has been called many things in the wake of the 2G spectrum allocation audit – a rare civil servant, a courageous man, a BJP stooge, and a commander general when it comes to conducting audits.
• Under Rai, the CAG became more media-savvy, with him holding a press conference, every time he submits a report to the Parliament. He also oversaw the creation of small booklets on his various reports for the better understanding of "audit" for parliamentarians.
• He propounded astronomical figures that common Indians had never heard of – the Rs 1.76 lakh crore 2G scam, the Rs 10,67,300 crores coal scam, the Rs 141 crore Commonwealth Games scam. As his audits threw these numbers, life became difficult both directly and indirectly for the then Congress-led UPA government.
• However RP Singh, who headed the CAG team that audited the 2G spectrum allocation, “did not have a hand in compiling the final report.” He asserted that the report was “forced” on him and that he was not the one who put the “figure” of Rs 1.76 lakh crore in the report. This 2G scam was only in the head of Vinod Rai and the Rs 1.76 lakh crore number never held much conviction. Even in the CBI charge sheet, the number had come down to Rs 30,984 crore. Trying to arrive at any kind of number was always incorrect.
• The then Union Minister Kapil Sibal drew flak when he made a statement back in January 2011 that the 2G spectrum allocation had caused no losses to the government. After the CBI court verdict, Sibal lashed out at those who had criticised him for his ‘zero loss’ statement.
• By attacking government policy and not just its expenditures, Vinod Rai may not have been going beyond his constitutional mandate, but he was clearly prioritising the CAG’s SOPs.
• With Justice O P Saini, of the CBI special court, acquitting all 18 accused in the 2G spectrum allocation case not only have Vinod Rai’s numbers come to question, but also his role as the chief auditor. It was on the basis of his report (i) that the CBI launched its investigation and (ii)  India voted for in the 2014 General Election.
• Post his retirement in November 2013, Vinod Rai still dons many hats. He is the chairman of UN Panel of External Auditors, honorary advisor to Indian Railways, and was most recently appointed the president of COE of the BCCI by the Supreme Court. In February 2016, Rai was appointed the chairman of Banks Board Bureau (BBB), the body which advises the government on top-level appointments at public sector banks and ways to address the bad loans.

CBI COURT DISMISSES THE 2G CASE

• On Dec 23, 2017, Special CBI judge O P Saini, acquitted former telecom minister A Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi and all others in the 2G Case, said the CBI cannot absolve itself of the burden to prove its case by “piggy riding on the so­ called high magnitude” of the case and the media hype. At the final stage, legally admissible evidence is required,” judge said.
• “In view of deficient, or I may say nil evidence on record, I find myself unimpressed and unmoved, whatever may be nature of the case,” the judge said.
• High profile nature of a case cannot be used as a ground for holding people guilty without legal evidence. Lack of commercial prudence in execution of documents cannot be used as a ruse to hold people guilty of corruption,” the court said.
• The CBI had alleged in its chargesheet that there was a loss of Rs. 30,984 crore to the exchequer in allocation of licences for the 2G spectrum which were scrapped by the top court on February 2, 2012.
• This verdict doesn't override the Supreme Court judgement that the procedure followed for allocating 2G spectrum licenses during UPA was illegal and cancelled all licenses.
• 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. 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". The judge also 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.” Needless to say CBI was let down by its own witnesses.
• Videocon Telecommunications, which lost its nationwide telecom licence in February 2012 following a Supreme Court (SC) order, will claim Rs 10,000 crore as compensation from the government. Many others may also follow suit.
• Vinod Rai who has made far reaching comments on UPA and Manmohan Singh etc at the fall of hat on 2G scam during past several years, has so far not commented on the issue on any forum.

SPECTRUM AUCTIONS, THE TRUTHS

• The aim of public policy just to maximise gains for the exchequer from allocation of natural resources is fallacious and misleading. Priorities must be ensuring the wider net for access to mobile telephony, broadband and high-speed internet.
• The private concessionaire has to make profits and therefore if you charge more for natural resources, the costs will be passed on to the users. 
• The money that telecom companies pay to the state is almost entirely borrowed from banks. If the government earns revenue from auctions, it must dig into other pockets to capitalise banks straddled with debt as a consequence of those very auctions.
• A healthy telecom sector, characterised  by steadily increasing teledensity and connectivity, engenders productivity and employment, providing a boost to the economy. The “notional” gain of earning revenue through auctions, therefore, pales in comparison to the very real, massive costs borne by the economy. The state of the telecom sector in the country and the impact of its poor performance on the economy speak for themselves.  
• For foreign companies Telenor, Etisalat and Sistema, who invested a lot of money, time and resources in India, this single judgment of SC wiped out all their investments. They were like innocent bystanders and this has hurt the sentiment of foreign investment.
• The ramification of the 2G debacle is that the telecom sector is reeling with debt running up to Rs 4 lakh crore, owing partly to auctions and license cancellations. When telecom companies do well, 5-10% of their topline goes to the government as part of a revenue share model. When they perform poorly, not only do banks lose out, but the adverse financial consequences are passed on to consumers, and the government loses out on revenue share as well as direct and indirect taxes paid by telecom companies. Currently, India’s telecom sector is one of the worst performing ones in the world.
• Recently, worried about the banking sector’s huge exposure to the telecom industry, SBI Chairman has asked the DoT to work out a bailout package for the operators, including deferred payment for spectrum and rationalising spectrum fee. The telecom sector, which could come under stress due to declining revenues with their total EBITDA on annualised basis is ₹65,000 crore which is unsustainable for debt of more than ₹4 lakh crore.
• In the business of politics, “facts” are easy to conjure and manufacture, and public perceptions are hard to change. The untruths can cause immediate and irrevocable damage. The truth will ultimately prevail but in the meantime, its absence can be devastating for some.
• The '2G Scam' and its malicious campaign has facilitated that catapulted Modi as PM and Kejriwal as CM of Delhi. Others were richly rewarded notable among them are Vinod Rai, Kiran Bedi, Arnab Goswami runs his own TV channel funded by NDA MP.

Who sold us the 2G 'scam'?

The conviction rate for the CBI is less than 5%. The CBI and ED seem to be lacking necessary forensic skills as far as financial frauds are concerned. Unless these agencies are modernised, we will continue to see more such cases that are heavily hyped but can only end up as having to be dismissed. Supreme Court judgment 2012 cancelling all 2G licences is a matter of regret in which the SC at that time moved from a pre-conceived notion to a pre-determined conclusion. They decided before any hearing that A. Raja was guilty but then chose to punish the completely wrong parties. Auction is not necessarily the only way of allocating public resources. For sure, we could have implemented the process better and in a more transparent fashion, but throwing out the policy to punish the guys because of perceived and unproven personal benefits was like throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Auction of spectrum at high prices means that it is no longer viable or justifiable for a new player to challenge the incumbents. The higher spectrum costs will be passed on to the public at the end of the day. After his retirement as CAG in 2013, Vinod Rai regularly writes articles in magazines, was conspicuously silent on failed adventures of BJP/Modi's demonetization, GST and many more.

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.

There was no 2G scam - NDTV

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?