Sibal is Raja's advocate: Shourie

The political wrangle over the 2G telecom scam today turned into a personal war of words, with former telecom minister Arun Shourie attacking the current incumbent, Kapil Sibal.

While accusing Sibal of trying to save now-disgraced former telecom minister A Raja by acting as his advocate, Shourie also dismissed the findings of the one-man committee that investigated the spectrum allocation. “Telecom minister Kapil Sibal is an advocate of Raja. He always tried to save Raja, by saying that he had informed everything to the Prime Minister,” Shourie told reporters in Mumbai.

Shourie said that the report, submitted by Shivraj Patil, appointed by the government in December, is a complete misrepresentation and distortion and only helps the government. The report had said that all procedures followed by the NDA government in 2003, as also by the UPA government till 2008, were not transparent and not carried out in a fair manner. Shourie was the telecom minister in the NDA-led government, which brought in the Unified Access Service Licence (UASL).

“Sibal is lying,” Shourie said, adding Raja changed the priority list for spectrum allocation in 2008 and advanced the cut-off date to help certain companies. “A handpicked judge gives the report to the government, which is so convenient that they can derail the issue. It is a perversity. How can documents be suppressed”, he asked.

“I have the documents which were suppressed and not placed before the CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General),” Shourie added.

In a separate television interview, Shourie said it was he who took the whistleblower in the entire case —- believed to be one of Raja’s personal staff —- to the investigating agencies. “There were two people who were handling Raja’s matters. One of them has disclosed this to me and I introduced that person to the CBI. He guided them through the money trail,” Shourie told NDTV Profit.