As is generally understood, the 2G was a scam of epic proportions; a bribe-taking at the highest level of government in Spectrum allocations, exposed by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India in 2010. It eventually led to the ouster of the UPA government led by Dr Manmohan Singh, and installation of the NDA government after the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Yet, a CBI court gave a verdict in 2017, saying there were a lot of exaggerations in the way the loss to the exchequer was computed. Above all it acquitted former Union Communications Minister A Raja and several others.
A new angle has now been added to the case by noted Supreme Court lawyer Harish Salve, who stated that the present economic slowdown has largely to do with the Supreme Court’s order to cancel wholesale the 2G Spectrum licences in 2012. This had hurt business sentiments and driven away foreign investors from India. Admittedly, Salve himself represented 11 of the aggrieved telecom companies while the case was being handled at the Supreme Court level. To that extent, his observations might be seen as being prejudiced. The economy was growing at nine per cent in the UPA-II period, against the present five per cent. “In one stroke, the apex court cancelled 122 spectrum licences issued to telecom operators .… With one stroke of the pen, it knocked all of them out. That was when the decline of the economy began,” was how Salve put it.
The report of the CAG in 2010 was that the central government erred in handling the 2G Spectrum allocations, which led to a loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the national exchequer. Following this, in 2012, the Supreme Court cancelled as many as 122 Spectrum licences. This, even as the Congress party had questioned the CAG’s contentions. There were those who suggested the figures the CAG advanced were presumptive. When, five years later, the CBI court took a lighter view of the whole matter, questions arose as to what all these were about. The CBI court came to the conclusion that the allegations were “conjectured” upon by “some people” who “artfully” arranged some facts and “exaggerated” matters to astronomical levels. The 2G cases are ongoing.
Salve may or may not be right. But, an argument has been advanced. It is time for a level-headed, objective discussion on this matter so that errors on one side or the other could be avoided.