Telecom

2G scam continues to haunt the Government – SC asks why PM did not follow through

The 2G scam continues to haunt the Congress party. For quite some time, the Congress evaded that there was any issue with the 2G scam issue, claimed that this was a policy decision (with the honorable purpose of reducing the telecom rates), that the CAG was off its rocker, that the Supreme Court had no locus standi. Next, the Congress tried to separate itself from the scope of the scam by claiming that all this was the work of a rogue minister, A Raja; the PM was helpless since he had to depend on the minister, was bound by the challenges of coalitions politics, and besides the poor PM was a single man, how could he monitor everything that was happening (thankfully, the PM did not repeat this particular line, else the charge of being a useless and non-caring PM would have stuck to his plate).
For quite some time, the Congress believed that this will work, that eventually the case will lost its media attention, and the CBI will be persuaded to back off or make the case much weaker (which is what the CBI is already being accused of). However, when other people smell blood, then it is difficult to stop them. So, the media is forever on the case, and Subramaniam Swamy is dedicated to targeting some of the senior members of the Congress in the 2G scam rather than be satisfied with the scalp of A Raja.
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The 2G scam – Internal fighting within the Congress refuses to die …

It seems so funny now. During the first 5 years of its reign, the UPA – 1 seemed very weak, buckling down to its allies for so many issues, until the Government finally developed some spine and withstood the left parties over the nuclear deal with the United States. It managed to get a majority for this purpose through some fine tuned voting in Parliament, with a lot of suspicion that some of the vote was bought. So, there was some relief when the Congress came into power with an enhanced majority in the form of the UPA2, and less dependence on allies. In this new form, the Congress promised to make things much better, starting with a 100 day plan to do much more. What is funny is, that after this increased number of seats, the Government seems to be in more of crisis situations, almost during the whole time of its existence.
The 2G scandal was simmering ever since Raja distributed a new seats of telecom license, and after the CAG report and the admonishment by the Supreme Court, the Government has been choking on the 2G scam ever since, sinking lower and lower in public opinion. Till some time back, the Government seemed to believe that it was able to get over the impact of the scandal, by getting Raja sent to jail, and by pretending that it was all a matter of the DMK and the Congress had nothing to do with the criminality committed by an alliance partner.
The first shock to the Congress came from the PAC report (headed by Murli Manohar Joshi), which severely castigated the Prime Minister and the then Finance Minister for letting the 2G scam happen. The Congress managed to get a majority on the PAC which put the report in a limbo.
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The shock to the DMK – the arrest of Kanimozhi; but what can do the DMK do ?

Finally the long awaited arrest happened. After the earlier arrest of DMK’s Raja, the investigation of the case by the CBI kept on moving ahead, guided by the ongoing investigation by the CBI, with media highlighting the various lapses by the CBI and by the investigation agencies, and with the Supreme Court looking into the progress of the cases. The reports by the CBI, the ED and the Income Tax department are ongoing, and from time to time, the Supreme Court gets into the progress of the cases and delivers some sort of strictures to the agencies. Just recently, the Supreme Court delivered warnings to the Income Tax department about why it has not carried out investigations since 2008, even when there is information available on tax evasions. The reply by the IT department, about the companies being big just went to further enrage the court, and one can expect that such warnings will be ongoing whenever the court sees any kind of interference by politicians.
This warning and court monitoring is what is being used by the Congress Government to convince the DMK that it can do nothing as the investigation into the 2G scam reaches Karunanidhi’s family. Earlier, Kanimozhi’s lawyers tried to blame Raja and then Sharat Kumar for everything that happened so far, claiming that Kanimozhi only held 20% of Kalaignar TV, and hence was innocent. However, this is a laughable supposition. A channel launched by Karunanidhis family, named on him, and she had no role to play. And Karunanidhi’s wife was the 60% share holder (and has not been charged so far, because of her old age).
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