Clocked out

The presence of a digital wall clock in the reception area of Sanchar Bhawan, headquarters of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), and the question of who had it installed appear to have become key issues in the special CBI court hearing the 2G spectrum allocation case. The clock is germane to the controversial “first-come-first-served” basis, on which spectrum was allocated to the exclusion of some applicants. It provided the time at which each company submitted its documents and, therefore, establishes whether undue favour was accorded to some applicants. Even so, there was something faintly Kafkaesque about the fact that prosecution witness and former DoT Director Sudhir Kumar Saxena was asked to explain – in some detail – to the court how the clock came to be there. Saxena said he looked after “general administration, maintenance of office building” at the time and had noticed the clock hanging in Sanchar Bhawan’s reception area when his boss asked him to accompany him there to inspect the arrangements on the morning of the day the companies were due to submit their documents. He said he did not know where it came from, nor did he discuss it with anyone. He did, however, concede that the “digital wall clock was not there as a matter of routine”.