Dangerous liaisons

In a meeting with editors of television channels earlier this week, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh came out tops on the state of economy and what ails it, why inflation could not be addressed by aggressive monetary tweaking and how we needed to maintain growth momentum. He also cited India’s economic success as his biggest achievement. Much of that well earned kudos was eclipsed by his uncomfortable handling of the biggest controversy in India — the telecom spectrum scam.

As head of cabinet, Singh said he wasn’t in a position to decide whether any wrongdoing was done by A Raja, when the government was caught in the whirlpool of allegations against the former telecom minister. By saying so, from being Caesar’s wife who is above reproach, he is also demonstrating the vulnerability of an ancient Roman woman with no voting rights. That’s an upsetting signal for the world’s biggest democracy. It sends out the message that when it comes to the most controversial issues, leadership is in a somewhat anaemic spot.

In the hour-long interaction that was widely watched, there are two things Singh said about the telecom spectrum scam that raked even greater controversy. The first was in response to whether he thought that there was no loss to exchequer in the giveaway of 2G airwaves to mobile phone companies which now under the radar of the CBI .

Trying to fend off the widely held belief that there was a loss, he tried to defuse it by linking it how we should presume losses. He argued that we don’t seem to question revenue loss when we talk of the thousands of crores on food, fertilizer and fuel subsidies that India doles out. After all, it could be said that by selling these goods at less-than-market rates, the government is incurring a revenue loss.

Far from deflecting the question, it reinforces the argument that there was a sale of airwaves at below-market rates. That’s perhaps just what the opposition wants acknowledged. Where the fuel and food comparison starts to jar, is when we start assuming that there is a justification for subsidising spectrum.

Commercial companies, beneficiaries of the spectrum, put the subsidised airwaves to use by charging users a uniform fee. Priority sector households, unfortunately, do not get mobile phone services at a deeply discounted price to those with a higher disposable income. The poor save by taking up phone usage plans, which can be consumed only up to the top-up limit they have purchased. It doesn’t necessarily make each call cheaper for them. So it’s amply clear that those who hold the spectrum end up finding a way to monetise it and there is then little reason then for the state to take a hit on its wallet to help private players fatten up theirs.

Singh’s other argument on Raja’s re-induction disheartens more. He says he did not feel he had to block Raja’s re-appointment, because he had no reason to believe at the time that any serious wrong had been done. Members of the public and parliament had been up-in arms against Raja’s re-appointment and the allegations were coming thick and fast. That should have been reason to worry. Everyone holds the PM to be a man of high integrity. His cabinet members need to reflect the same level of honesty and decency that he has always stood for. Ignoring in-the-face allegations for the sake of coalition politics, may have upended the UPA’s chance of delivering what it claims it wants — a government for the aam aadmi. It breeds the underlying risk that people, frustrated as they are, will stop seeing a clean leader as the way to a good government.

Anjana Menon is Executive Editor, NDTV Profit. The views expressed here are personal