2G auction: BJP slams UPA for flop show

The recently concluded auction, which lasted just 2 days, got total bids worth Rs 9,407.64 cr

The BJP on Friday blamed the Congress-led UPA government for "failure" of the recently concluded auction of 2G mobile phone spectrum. It further slammed Union Telecom minister Kapil Sibal and UPA government spokesperson Finance Minister P Chidambaram for "celebrating" the flop show of the 2G spectrum auction.

The recently concluded auction, which lasted just two days, got total bids worth Rs 9,407.64 crore, just one-third of the minimum Rs 28,000 crore the government was expecting. The auction was a far cry from the 35-day bidding for the 3G spectrum in 2010 that got Rs 67,719 crore.

"The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) had given an estimate of the loss in the earlier auction of 2G spectrum. Further there was mismanagement of the telecom sector by the union government in 2012. The failure of the 2G spectrum auction is an example of the direction in which this government was taking the country's economy to," said senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley on Friday on sideline of a party function in Ahmedabad.

 

"Any responsible government would have been concerned over the situation. There should have been an introspection. But this UPA government is the one which is happy with its failures. Celebrating its failure (with the 2G spectrum auction)," Jaitley claimed.

"The government spokesperson and its minister appear very happy that this auction was a failure. The government has lost its sense of fairness. They cannot comprehend that this failure was a loss to government treasury, and is likely to put pressure on the fiscal deficit of the country. It will also have a negative impact on India's  economy," said the Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat, who is also leader of the opposition in the Upper House.

Meanwhile, in New Delhi Union Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal on Friday announced that the government plans to put on auction the circles that went without bids in the just concluded sale of 2G mobile phone spectrum, by end of the current fiscal.