When just about everyone appeared to be baying for his blood, a group of telecom employees has thrown its weight behind Communications Minister A Raja, saying there was no loss to the exchequer on account of not auctioning licences/spectrum.
Through a booklet, 'Spectrum: Myth and Reality', the Telecom Employees Progress Union has launched a counter attack on the CPI-M and questioned the party's motives in making serious allegations against the government.
The CPI-M had alleged that government has lost a whopping Rs 1,00,000 crore on account of non-auctioning of licences to new telecom players, who have been given pan-India licences at 2001 rates of Rs 1,658 crore.
Telecom regulator Trai had recommended in August 2007 that in order to keep a level-playing field among the 2G service providers, 2G spectrum should not be auctioned.
Since the government had issued new licences to the existing telecom players at the same price till as late as in March 2007 (just two months prior to Raja taking charge of the telecom ministry), there was no question of increasing the price of the licence for new operators.
In fact, the workers union claimed that there existed a strong cartel of existing operators before Raja took over, as it was always maintained that there was no spectrum to bring in new players.
"Not only a cartel was maintained in telecom sector, there was a surreptitious play have also been done all along by claiming that there was no spectrum for expansion. Could you imagine the real loss incurred financially and technically to this country by this coffer play?" the booklet said.