PM defends Raja, says he's done no wrong

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Monday defended Telecom Minister A Raja, under attack for the alleged scam in granting licences in 2008, saying he had only followed the policies of the previous NDA government.

At the same time, he dismissed suggestions for Raja's removal from the Cabinet, saying "....pending the investigations it is not proper for me to express any definitive opinion."

Citing the success of 3G spectrum auction, which would fetch the government over Rs 67,700 crore as against about Rs 10,000 crore that the exchequer got from new 2G licences in 2008, the Opposition has been asking for Raja's resignation saying the scam caused a loss of up to Rs one lakh crore to the exchequer.

Answering a query at the first national press conference of the UPA-II, Singh said: "I have also discussed this issue with Raja... he has told me that what he did was, implemented the policies which were in place since 2003 (NDA regime)."

Singh said Raja, who represents DMK in the Union Cabinet, has also made his position clear in Parliament and also in the media.

The Prime Minister, however, admitted that there is a huge gap in the revenue generation from 2G licences (given by Raja in 2008) compared to a whopping Rs 67,700 crore from the auction of 3G spectrum sale that concluded only last week.

"I think one has to look at the whole problem in proper perspective. There was a particular policy which was in place since 2003 before our government came into power," Singh said, adding that Raja's point was that it would amount to discrimination if different yardsticks were applied for the new entrants.

Pointing that the whole issue was being investigated and the CVC has asked the CBI to look into this and the process is on, he said and assured: "If I come to know that there is any involvement at any level in corruption, we will take action." The pricing for 2G spectrum was based on policies that were already in place and had approvals of telecom regulator TRAI, he said.

Nine new companies including Unitech, Shyam Sistema, Datacom, S Tel and Loop Telecom were given licences in 2008 and pan-India licence was then offered at Rs 1,658 crore along with start-up 4.4 MHz spectrum.

Anil Ambani-led RCom and Tata Teleservices were allowed to offer mobile services on both technology platforms -- GSM and CDMA.