Arun Shourie, who served as the telecom Minister in the NDA government, was questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the 2G spectrum case.
Shourie said he is providing the CBI with a 50-page document that details his account of the issue.
Shourie’s term as telecom Minister lasted from January 2003 to May 2004. He said that the government keeps referring to the first-come first-serve policy followed by Raja as a red herring. He added that the issue was that A. Raja made money irrespective of whether it was a first-come-first-serve policy or not. The issue was money being made in allocation of spectrum. He added that more important is the fact that Raja’s supervisors did not take action.
In addition to the CBI inquiry into the 2G issue, the government appointed Justice Shivraj Patil to examine telecom policies followed from 2001-2009. Justice Patil found that telecom policies were manipulated by bureaucrats in Shourie’s ministry. Justice Patil said that Vinod Vaish, who was the telecom secretary during Shourie’s term, colluded with Pradeep Baijal, former chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to undermine decisions taken by the Cabinet at that time on how to handle spectrum allocation.
Shourie dismissed Justice Patil’s report as a case of signature for hire, suggesting that the retired judge presented the government with a report that helped it to make the case that the roots of the telecom issue were planted during the NDA government.
