Letters: Doing the 2G math II

The editorial “Mr Sibal’s arithmetic” supports Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal’s latest argument about the erroneous notion of a loss of revenue to the exchequer in the 2G spectrum allocation. But some time ago in an interview, Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh had claimed that the involvement of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders changed the policy goalpost in 1999 to suit the licensees after the auction, resulting in a loss of Rs 1,43,000 crore to the exchequer until 2010. The editorial also says both the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) are guilty of adopting a flawed spectrum policy.

Former and present telecom ministers and the Congress party’s spokesperson have been repeatedly saying that the UPA government just followed the telecom policy of the NDA government. But, the UPA government was under no obligation to continue with NDA’s telecom policy. Why didn’t the UPA change the policy if it was against national interest? Unless there is a convincing answer to this question, there is reason to suspect that the policy was followed by the UPA government because it suited the telecom minister who was incumbent at the time and the telecom operators. The 2G scam has become a matter of national concern. The issue of the exchequer’s loss should not be avoided by making politically-motivated statements and playing the blame game. The Congress party would do well to facilitate a fair and credible probe in this matter.

M C Joshi, Lucknow