Sibal blames A Raja, NDA for 2G spectrum scam

New Delhi: Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal on Thursday defended the government in the 2G spectrum scam and blamed the telecom policy brought by the NDA government in 2003 and followed by former telecom minister A Raja for the loss to the exchequer. "The court has indicted the 'first come first serve' policy, which was the NDA government's policy. It was their policy, which was followed by the UPA when it came to power in 2004," Sibal said reacting to the court's order of cancelling 122 2G licences.

Sibal said that the UPA government was nowhere responsible for the multi-crore scam and claimed that the then finance minister P Chidambaram and the Prime Minister had no role to play in this.

Putting the blame on A Raja, Sibal said, "The Supreme Court order says that the Finance Ministry's and the PMO's advise was not followed by the then minister."

"The then minister has been found to have committed irregularities in the allocation of spectrum on seven accounts," Sibal added.

The Telecom Minister also blamed the TRAI's recommendations of allotting the 2G spectrum, saying, "The SC has said that the TRAI recommendations were flawed and the then telecom minister followed the TRAI recommendations, in no way has the government been indicted."

Reacting to the BJP's demand for the resignation of Home Minister P Chidambaram, Sibal hit back at the BJP and said, "I expect the BJP to come clean and say that they themselves were responsible for the loss."

Explaining the consequences of the court order, Sibal said that the consumers won't be affected as the licences will be cancelled only after four months, during which period, fresh licences will be allotted to telecom companies.

Asked about the implications of the judgement on the companies like Telenor of Norway and Sistema of Russion who have pumped huge money to roll out services, the minister said any aggrieved corporate can approach the court for relief.

Sibal welcomed the court's order and said, "The government will abide by the judgment. We are happy that issues have been clarified. We will await the recommendations of TRAI."

(With additional information from PTI)