Political and corporate circles are intrigued that none of those lobbies are trying to take advantage of the scandal surrounding former communications minister Sukh Ram, which has provided an ideal opportunity to have the award of licences for basic telecom services scrapped and the tendering process reopened.
In the absence of corporate lobbying, MPs across the political spectrum have displayed a level of indifference to the Sukh Ram scandal that has surprised those who thought they were genuinely concerned about probity in public life last winter.
Political party leaders argue that they have been preoccupied with other issues such as Amarnath and the current imbroglio in Gujarat. Asked about the lack of interest in Sukh Ram, the BJP's leader in the Rajya Sabha, Sikander Bakht railed against the press for not adequately attacking the behaviour of the Gujarat Assembly's deputy speaker.
He explains further that his party did not want to press for a joint parliamentary committee to probe into the Sukh Ram affair since such a committee would be dominated by members from the Congress and the United Front and the latter needed to keep the Congress happy for the survival of their government. The BJP is the only real opposition and we would have been in a minority.
BJP's senior member, Satish Aggarwal, says he had wanted to press for a JPC, which only Left party members have pressed for in Parliament, but was told by his party leaders not to.
Aggarwal was one of those at the forefront of the agitation last winter for reopening the tendering process for basic and mobile telecom services. Pramod Mahajan, who had initiated that agitation, now says there is no need to reopen the issue. The only one who appears to be talking of the basic telecom tenders this time is Nilotpal Basu of the CPI(M). On Wednesday, he asked that the ambit of the CBI probe be expanded to include that tendering process. Basu leads unions that represent the department of telecom workers. One reason for the lack of corporate lobbying could be the lack of liquidity in the market. Companies would require huge amounts to make viable bids if the tenders were floated afresh.
Plus, many in the telecom sector suspect that some of the prominent companies that won the bids will not be able to meet their financial commitments.
This could mean that bidding would start again after these companies fold up, setting the stage for much lower bids. By the time that happens, the capital markets could improve. So, undoing the earlier bids through political activism might only be counter-productive for some of those who hope the companies that won the bids last time will fold up.
and set the stage for a much lower level of bidding.
