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A Raja questions PM's silence, asserts there is no proof against him

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ANI New Delhi

Questioning Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's silence over the 2G scam case, former Telecom Minister A. Raja has asserted that that there is no evidence against him.

In an interview to Times Now, Raja said: "There is no proof against me, and I did not accumulate any wealth. There is no loss to the exchequer, and I was only trying to infuse competition".

Raja further attacked Dr. Manmohan Singh, and said that the prime minister was silent and did not accept the PMO recommendation.

"It must be fair to say that issues enumerated by the CBI and CAG were not presented by the government in front of appropriate forums," Raja said.

 

When asked whether Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram should be questioned in the case, Raja said that it was upto the CBI to question them. "The CBI should decide who should be called and who should not be called for questioning in the 2G scam case," he said.

He further said: "The corporate sector in the telecom field gave an unwritten note the prime minister's office including spectrum allocation and how subscriber criteria can be devised. For all these things an unsigned note was given to prime minister. It is unfortunate on the part of the PMO or the PM that the unwritten note has been appended with the letter of the prime minister and sent to me before taking any decision so that I may be apprised."

" I received the letter replied the letter to the prime minister that the suggestion that has been contemplated in the appended note is completely against the NTP 1999, because the national telecom policy was devised by the cabinet and approved by the parliament with due respect to the parliament and the prime minister I can say with all my simplicity, even prime minister wanted to travel as against 1999 which was designed by union cabinet and the parliament, which he can't," he added

Stating that I am accountable to the parliament not to the prime minister or anybody else, Raja said: "Policy is something different, had it been replied to by me, prime minister accepted it, yes it is a policy."

"So, where is the question of controversy between PMO and Raja? But it has been said in the chargesheet that the prime minister's advised has been ignored," he added.

The 2G scam has damaged the reputation of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government and also tarnished the image of the country's telecom sector.

Raja was forced to resign from the Union Cabinet after a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) faulted him for undervaluing spectrum to favour companies who were largely ineligible for 2G spectrum, and added that the government had probably lost Rs. 1.76 lakh crore in estimated revenue.

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First Published: Mar 14 2014 | 2:35 PM IST

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