BJP wants Raja arrested

NEW DELHI: Sharpening its offensive on the 2G Spectrum scam, the BJP has demanded the arrest of former Union Telecom Minister A Raja and his interrogation under the Prevention of Corruption Act.The party has also demanded a thorough investigation against other beneficiaries of the scam.Turning up the heat on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the BJP accused him of ‘conspiracy of silence, culpability of inaction and guilty of gross indifference,’ when the nation’s wealth was being plundered by a minister right under his nose by a massive abuse of the system.“As head of the Government, the Prime Minister looked the other way,” the party charged.BJP general secretary and chief spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said the Prime Minister claimed to be a man of great integrity and professed probity and yet lakhs of crores of public money was looted systematically by people who were part of the system and worked under him - be it the 2G spectrum scam, or CWG, or other scams.Raising some disturbing questions, which troubled the nation for the last more than two years, Prasad demanded that the Prime Minister should respond.Under open licence regime, when applications were invited till October 1, 2007, why was an artificial cut-off date of September 25, 2007, created, rejecting applications received later? He asked why the Prime Minister kept quiet, when the rules were changed after the game had started? Why was spectrum allowed to be sold in 2007 at the price of 2001, when teledensity in the country had increased by more than seven times? On November 2, 2007, the Prime Minister claimed to have written to A Raja to use transparent mechanism of auction. When Raja replied on December 2 and December 26, 2007, almost flouting his direction to go for auction, the Prime Minister chose to look the other way, by his letter of January 3, 2008, which virtually meant that Raja could go ahead with his ‘Operation Loot’. Why did not the Prime Minister call for the file and record his displeasure when such blatant violation of all norms were being done so brazenly? Why did not he order a review of the 2G spectrum allocation, when the 3G spectrum earned `1 lakh crore against the target of `35,000 crore? Why did the Prime Minister remain silent, when 85 ineligible companies (as found by CAG) were granted letters of intent and more surprisingly, the companies, which won licenses, were permitted to trade in spectrum, he asked.