2G Scam : Heroes and Neros

This is a followup of the previous post : Is Rome really burning? The objective is to highlight the key individuals and organizations in this saga.

Heroes

Here are a few names which have appeared in open-source information so far. Note that this list is by no means complete.

Bureaucrats who strived to prevent Raja from committing the irregularities (Link)

• DS Mathur 
• Manju Madhvan 

Organizations that have tried to bring public attention to irregularities

• TRAI, Came out 4 days after the process was rigged (Jan 14, 2008)
• Civil Vigilance Commission (Nov 2008)

Public Interest Litigation (PIL) were filed by following individuals. This led to Supreme Court severely criticizing the GoI for the delaying tactics and forcing their hand.

• Centre for Public Interest Litigation, through Prashant Bhushan (2010)
• Telecom Watchdog, through Anil Kumar (2010)
• Journalist, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Independant (2010) 
• Janata Party President, Dr. Subramanian Swamy joined later on (2010)

Investigative Journalists instrumental in connecting the dots and bringing it to light

• Journalist J GopiKrishnan, Daily Pioneer (Connected all the dots of the 2G scam) - April 2010

Last, but not the least, is the so far unnamed whistleblower that was instrumental in bringing down the beast. Lets call him "Satya" in honor of Satyendra Kumar Dubey, the valiant officer murdered in 2003 for exposing the irregularities in construction of Golden Quadrilateral. "Satya" in the words of his contact, is

• This young Government officer told me about the parking of funds in front companies by the Minister and his associates in the name of relatives. He told me who the actual beneficiaries of the scam were, including corporates, politicians and lobbyists.

Neros

In popular Roman legend, Nero, the Emperor of Rome in the year 64AD, was said to be "playing fiddle while Rome was burning". It seems like we have quite a few contenders for that title.

Kapil Sibal

The minister who replaced Raja as the Minister of Telecommunications and Information Technology has said the following in Jan 2011, almost 3 years after TRAI publicly brought attention to irregularities and after CVC/CAG documented the enormous loss.

• "The loss is zero, nil"

Prime Minister (in press conference  of Feb16, 2011)

[Courtesy : Alfred Navato for Bharat-2020]

A spirited campaign launched by the opposition in 2009 grew more and more intense as time progressed. However, a determined stonewalling effort by GoI and Congress High Command (in consideration of coalition support), has led to all governance coming to a grinding halt. Forced into a corner, the PM and Congress finally showed A. Raja the door. With the opposition still unrelenting on accountability, the PM was forced to schedule a press meet 3 months later (Feb 16, 2011).

As part of this press meet, the PM spoke to select journalists. While this, and bad quality of the recording made available are disturbing indicators, they are least of the absurdness that followed.

Prime Minister's press conference  (video1 at min 3:47).

• Ladies and gentlemen, in the last couple of months, the media have drawn the country's attention to some aberrations, whether in the form of allocation of 2G spectrum, the commonwealth games, and more recently some developments in the space organization, Adarsh society affairs. I think media have played a very important role in country's attention to these issues, which require [inaudible] 

If it were a matter of few lakhs or possibly crores (since even GoI cannot escape inflation), one could get away with trivializing them, after all, scams are nothing new to us. But calling the scale and pattern of the scams of 2010 aberrations makes one wonder if the PM is living in the same world as rest of us. This would be the first disconnect!

Prime Minister's press conference  (video2 )

• I wish to assure you and I wish to assure country as a whole that our govt is dead serious in bringing to book all the wrongdoers regardless of their position they may occupy. However, I would like to say that in rejecting these evils, an impression has gone around that we are a scam-driven country and that nothing good is happening in our country. In the process, believingly, I think we are weakening the self-confidence of the people of the country. I don't think that is in the interest of anybody in our country. We have a functioning govt and Whatever some people might say, that we are a lame duck govt, that I am a lame duck prime minister. We take our job very seriously. We are here to govern and to govern effectively. Tackle the problems as they arise and kept this country moving forward on the pace of development which would do justice to the demands being made on the processes of governance.

What has the PM got to show for the trust that was placed in him and his cabinet so far? Is the PM suggesting that instead of rejecting these evils, Indians should embrace them? What alternative is he offering, besides placing blind trust in him again? Is there any accountability, even if delayed?

When referring to "I don't think that is in the interest of anybody", I wish the PM was talking about the scams and theft. Too bad, he is just referring to the "impression in the media", not the actual scams.

The simple question is, are we scam-driven country or not? If we are, then lets not worry about what impression is going around, and get to work on fixing it like we are dealing with cancer, before it becomes terminal.

Prime Minister's press conference (video3 @ 2:30)

• Whatever our own domestic weaknesses, I think we shouldn't create an atmosphere whereby the nation looses its sense of self-confidence. I think media has an obligation, government has an obligation, opposition has an obligation that we work together in a spirit that India as a whole has to march forward. Parliament has not been allowed to function, for reasons which I am not able to understand.

•  So, I wish to mention to you that in reporting the affairs of our nation, we mustn't focus excessively on negative features, important though it is, that the Government should deal with them, to take effective actions, and you have my assurance that where such corrective action is required, our Government will take that action and bring wrongdoers to book

If there is a weakening in the self-confidence, it is because one of the most respectable technocrats of present day India (the PM) uses words like "aberrations" and "false impression" to gloss over the massive corruption at the highest level of governance, that happened right under his nose.

Even after consistently been brought to his attention, it took 3 years for the PM's office to even acknowledge the the theft. In absence of accountability, transparency and sincere steps, are we to accept that, checks and balances will be lacking within the cabinet; that, the cabinet will go out of its way to defend their kin, no matter how corrupt?

Is that the democracy we keep bragging about?

Prime Minister's Press Conference (video5 @ 2:05)

• Now, the other you mentioned about Mr. Raja being inducted into the cabinet. Well, I cannot divulge what went on in the process, processes of cabinet formation, but I would like to mention that, we are a coalition government. In a coalition govt, you can suggest your prefernces, but you have to go by what the leader of that particular coalition party [inaudible] ultimately insists and Mr. Raja along with Mr. Maran was the choice of the DMK party. And as of that moment, I had no reason frankly speaking, to feel that anything seriously wrong had been done. And therefore i did not feel that I had the authority to object to Mr. Raja's entry because I quite honestly in may 2009, although complaints were coming in, but complaints were coming from all sides. And some were from those companies which have not benefited, some were from those who have benefited, but not benefited adequately, and therefore i was not in a position to make up my mind that anything seriously was wrong with Mr. Raja's [inaudible]

Mainstream Broadcast Media

The so-called "english mainstream media" dominating the TV broadcast space stands starkly exposed in this saga. The supposed key-pillar of the society, was absconding for almost 3 years. Though there are a range of accusations hurled at the media currently, for the sake of this post, lets just focus on the "Nero" aspect.

A brief overview of the state of affairs between 2007-2010.

• TRAI and CVC see the need to contradict the Deaprtment of Telecom publicly (2008)
• High Courts ruled against Ministry's policy of spectrum allocation; Supreme Court censures the GoI and investigative agencies for dragging their feet. (2009-2010)
• Opposition and public interest groups campaign hard to prosecute Raja (2008-2010);
• Raja is reinstated for a second term (2009)
• Tapes were published by Pioneer, in what should have been a scandal of epic proportions (April 2010)
• A voluntary news blackout by the media after second set of tapes were published (Nov 2010).

In spite of above, there was no disclosure nor discussion taking part in good part of the mainstream media between 2007-2010, with few exceptions. This could be termed at best as, a gigantic error of judgement or at worst as, a deliberate cover up.

Which one do you think it is? Comments welcome!