CAG testifies before JPC on 2G scam

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) today appeared before the Joint Parliamentary Committee probing the telecom spectrum scam and gave an uninterrupted briefing. He spoke on the CAG reports of 1998, 2000, 2004 and 2010 on the issue of licence allocation and policy.

After Vinod Rai, the CAG, finished his briefing, questions were raised if he had the right to comment on the policy issues and thereby arrive at a conclusion on loss to the exchequer because of faulty policies or not. It was the CAG report and its estimate of Rs 1.76 lakh crore loss to the public exchequer due to the spectrum allocation policy that led to a political storm and the resignation (and subsequent jailing) of then telecom minister A Raja.

In the earlier meeting of the JPC, the telecom secretary was asked to ascertain the quantum of loss due to shift in the telecom policy in 1998. According to a member, “He is yet to give any reply because he has been sent 114 questions on this issue from the committee. Another 50-60 questions can be added to the questionnaire.”

When the committee met today, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Yashwant Sinha (a former Union finance minister) entered into an argument with JPC chief P C Chacko, who is from the Congress party, over an interview of the latter published last week. In that, Chacko reportedly spoke about Sinha’s presence in the JPC after being in the cabinet that cleared earlier telecom policy.

Chacko flatly said that he was misquoted. But Sinha questioned the motive and need to bring up the issue, as the Lok Sabha Speaker has already ruled in favour of Sinha and settled it. Sparks also flew between the Communist Party of India’s Gurudas Dasgupta and some other members, on his telling them to read the conventions in the context of laws.