The other half: Unearthing truth

It is a matter of grave national importance that a person working in the prime minister’s office has identified the letters exchanged between ex-minister of Telecom A Raja and the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the context of the 2G scam. These letters have been with this court of law for a long time yet it has been unable to proceed with the case in the absence of collaborative evidence. That there is now further confirmation of the identity of these letters is important in taking ahead the case. These letters throw more light on the case as they provide evidence that the prime minister of India was not in the dark about the 2G spectrum scam as he has been claiming. The 2G scam is one of the biggest scams of independent India, with several ministers of the central government standing accused of corruption on a large-scale, among whom Raja is the only one who has been treated as a culprit so far. Surprisingly, the case has made little progress despite being in the courts of law for a long time. This is because there has been little cooperation from the government of India. They, as well as the Central Bureau of Investigation have been hamstrung in their investigation in the absence of sufficent evidence. This is a reason why many of the central ministers who are involved in these series of 2G corruption scams have escaped identification and scrutiny. Raja’s letters to the prime minister seem to indicate that the prime minister was aware of the issues involved in the 2G scam. This is of interest because the prime minister had denied on several occasions in the past that he had no knowledge at all about the decision-making involved in the allotment of spectrum or, indeed, of these series of transactions at all.

This is indefensible for it is for the prime minister of India to be in the know of all decisions the cabinet makes. He cannot claim that these decisions were taken behind his back. These letters are also important because they provide evidence that these decisions may have been in the know of the senior members of the cabinet. For, presumably, Raja, or the prime minister circulated the papers regarding the cabinet decisions to all other relevant ministries, as is the correct procedure. In fact, none of the senior cabinet ministers of this government can deny that they were aware of the facts of the 2G spectrum scam. If they have done so, then it is a serious anomaly in the working of this government.