Former telecom minister, Arun Shourie, on Tuesday dismissed the recently released Justice Shivraj Patil report on spectrum allocation as a "fabrication by
Kapil Sibal," that suits the purposes of the ruling party.
"Telecom minister Sibal used Justice Patil's report to pass the buck on to the opposition (National Democratic Alliance led by BJP) parties for the massive
2G scam," Shourie said, while alleging, "that Sibal functions as an advocate of A. Raja."
Shourie termed the report "a complete misrepresentation and distortion". Shourie, who is the opposition BJP's senior leader, served as telecom minister in the early part of last decade.
"A hand-picked judge gives the report to the government, which is so convenient that they can derail the issue. It is a perversity," he said.
"How can documents be suppressed," Shourie argued, stating, "I have the documents, which were suppressed from reaching CAG."
"Justice Patil says, we (the BJP regime) deviated from Trai (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) recommendation. Actually, every single Trai recommendation was adhered to by us in letter and spirit," the senior BJP leader claimed.
Justice Patil was appointed in December to review the process followed by the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) after the 2G scam turned out to be a political thorn for the Union government. The details of the scam exposed by CAG caused the exit of A. Raja, who was the UPA's telecom minister. He as later replaced by Kapil Sibal.
The Patil report was quoted extensively by Sibal in his arguments for shifting the blame on to the opposition NDA. The report said that there has been no transparent decision in the allocation of spectrum since 2003. It blamed the NDA government in which Shourie was the telecom minister, for introducing faulty policies, including the first-come-first-serve policy for companies who applied for spectrum.
Shourie says there was nothing wrong with the actual principle, and that the mistake lay in the fact that Raja did not in fact follow any principle.
"He changed the priority list, he advanced the cutoff date, to help some companies," said Shourie, while explaining some irregularities indulged in by Raja.
Sibal has said that Raja had kept the Prime Minister fully informed of his every decision.
Shourie asked,"In that case what was Manmohan Singh doing for the last six-and-a-half years when the loot was going on? "He said Raja had suddenly preponed the date for accepting applications for spectrum licenses which was fixed for October 1,2008.
"He (Raja) does not disclose that they changed the basis of first-come-first serve... It will not be the date of application but the date on which the letter of intent was fulfilled. Among the conditions were that you bring 1,650 crore by bank draft within 41 minutes,"he said.
"Such a report(Patil's report) brings the judiciary into disrepute.
I know this is a serious statement and I am a great votary of powers and have esteem for the judiciary. But such a fabrication,such a performance brings the judiciary into disrepute,"Shourie alleged.
He alleged that Patil had drawn his conclusions without examining any of the players involved or going through all the relevant documents.
"This is an unheard procedure that you hand-pick a judge and he decides not to examine anybody.
He decides to go by only the documents handed over to him by a department led by an advocate like Kapil Sibal,who is fabricating the case in defence of Raja,"Shourie argued.
He also expressed surprise at the revelations made in media reports about allocation of 70 MHz of S-band spectrum. "I can't imagine 70 MHz. People kill each other on one MHz or to go from 4.4 MHz to 6.6 MHz,"he said.
Courtesy: Mail Today 
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