PM and PC named but ‘not blamed’

New Delhi, July 25: A. Raja today told a court that all the decisions on the award of spectrum licences were taken by the cabinet and that both the Prime Minister and then finance minister P. Chidambaram were in the know.

Raja’s counsel Sushil Kumar, though, later clarified to the judge that he was “not shifting blame” on Manmohan Singh or Chidambaram in the 2G case, and claimed that neither they nor former telecom minister Raja was guilty.

Earlier, during the morning proceedings, Kumar had told the court: “Then finance minister P. Chidambaram had told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the issue of sale of equity by spectrum licensees Swan Telecom and Unitech to attract FDI (foreign direct investment) did not amount to sale of licence as per corporate law. Let the PM deny it.”

But when the proceedings resumed after lunch, Kumar told judge .P. Saini that contrary to what some TV channels were saying, his client had not blamed either Singh or Chidambaram.

“I am not shifting blame on anybody. (The) TV channels are misreporting it. I am only defending myself in the court. This is my case and they are not guilty with me,” Kumar said on behalf of Raja, who stood next to him.

Later, when The Telegraph asked Raja about his counsel dragging Singh and Chidambaram into the case, he said: “I have already clarified it. No more comments on that.”

Raja then turned to Kanimozhi, sitting next to him, and asked: “I hope you heard when he (Kumar) gave the clarification?”

“Yes, he has clarified it,” she replied.

This was the first time Raja had explicitly named Singh and Chidambaram to defend himself. On February 3, a day after his arrest, he had told the court that all the decisions on the award of 2G licences were approved by the cabinet.

The CBI accuses Raja of favouring Swan Telecom and Unitech while awarding the licences in 2007-2008. According to the agency, both companies, which sold large parts of their shares to foreign firms, were ineligible to get licences.

Kumar argued that an equity sale was different from a licence sale, and that Raja could not be accused of corruption in the licence allocation.

“The matter pertaining to the sale of equity by the spectrum licensees was discussed between the Prime Minister and the then finance minister,” the lawyer said.

He said Raja had merely followed preceding telecom ministers in not auctioning the 2G licence. “I (Raja) only implemented what I inherited. If the policy implemented by me was wrong, then all former telecom ministers since 2001 should be sent to jail with me,” Kumar said.

He said Arun Shourie had distributed 26 licences as telecom minister and Dayanidhi Maran had distributed 25. Raja awarded 122 licences.

“But numbers do not make any difference.... None of them auctioned the spectrum. If they had done no wrong, why am I being targeted?” Kumar said.

Kumar said Raja deserved bouquets and not brickbats. “I should have been rewarded.... I made the call rates of mobile phones so cheap that even a rickshaw-wallah or a maidservant can be seen using it.”

He questioned the CBI’s claim about losses to the exchequer, saying the government and its IT minister had always claimed there was zero loss. “Who is (the) CBI to decide the loss? Let the government come and say this.”

Kumar said that like Unitech and Swan Telecom, Tata Teleservices too had sold its shares to bring in FDI, but the CBI had not charged the company