2G: The letter that Maran sent to PM

New Delhi: The PMO is slated to explain its stand on record to the Supreme Court on the 2G spectrum issue on Tuesday.

However, fresh questions pertaining to a letter accessed by CNN-IBN in 2010 are being posed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ahead of that.

The letter had exposed how the Prime Minister got arm-twisted by A Raja's predecessor Dayanidhi Maran into keeping spectrum pricing out of the mandate of the Group of Ministers.

The Prime Minister had to concede to the demand because of consistent pressure from his crucial ally, the DMK.

First, then telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran had written to the Prime Minister: "You had kindly assured me that the Terms of Reference of the GOM would be drawn up exactly the way we wanted it which was to focus only on the issue of vacation of spectrum."

Maran went on to add that the new terms of reference that had been drawn up "impinge upon the work" of the Telecom Ministry.

And in what appeared to be clear cut instructions to the Prime Minister by the Telecom Minister, he said, "I shall be grateful if you could kindly instruct the concerned to modify the Terms of Reference as suggested by us."

Perhaps keeping in mind the fact that the Congress was heavily dependent on its allies during its first stint, the Prime Minister agreed. Therefore, as desired by Maran, the Cabinet Secretary issued fresh notification in December 2007.

It said, "The Prime Minister has approved modification of the Terms of Reference of the GoM. The Revised ToR will accordingly be as under: Vacation if adequate additional spectrum by existing users such as defence."

The first line of this letter is proof of the Prime Minister's nod to the decision.

In April 2007, Telecom Secretary DS Mathur had clarified to a persistent Finance Ministry.

"The ToR issued by the Cab Sec in Feb 2006 included spectrum pricing, which is normally within the normal work carried out by this Ministry. The Honourable Minister had written to the Honourable PM accordingly in Feb 2006 requesting the ToR be modified as suggested by us. The revised ToR were issued by Cab Sec in Dec 2006."

However, the Finance Secretary raised concerns against the decision. On April 19, 2007, he wrote to the Cabinet Secretary, "I wish to bring to your notice that spectrum pricing and allocation have far reaching consequences for the economy and need to be debated. The contention of the DoT that these issues are within its normal work is not entirely correct. I request you to kindly intervene and include these two vital issues in the ToR in the GoM."

The fact is that the Prime Minister had tried to go in for an auction route in 2G spectrum case, but was overruled by A Raja. The letters show that even before Raja became the Telecom Minister, the Prime Minister was being arm-twisted by the DMK into accepting its demands. This was probably a compulsion of coalition, but it is the government exchequer which turned out to be the loser.