2G scam verdict: Why prosecution, media and BJP have egg on their face today
The 2G “scam” had a major hand in denting the image of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance-I, providing grist to the BJP and the rest of the Opposition to not only show the ruling party/government as corrupt but also tarnish the economist-politician Manmohan Singh’s image.
This led the then PM to state on January 3, 2014: “I feel somewhat sad, because I was the one who insisted that spectrum allocation should be transparent, it should be fair, it should be equitable.”
The case moved by the CBI, therefore, was a high-stakes affair, and helped strengthen the public discourse against the UPA-1, facilitating the rise of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in 2014.
This public anger was widely stoked by the media: “Former CAG Vinod Rai and his team had the last laugh on Thursday when the ten-day-long 2G Spectrum auction ended by fetching Rs 61,162-crore to the public exchequer. This whopping figure of the 2G auction is much above the three-year-old 3G auction rates.”
Senior economist-journalist TN Ninan was more critical. He wrote, “...because of the aberrant manner in which Mr Raja handed out these substantial gifts, it became the largest scam in our history. So when Mr (Kapil) Sibal claims zero loss, I’m afraid he carries zero credibility.”
The CBI judge OP Saini, in his judgment, stated that the “trial of the instant case attracted a lot of attention… (but) none of these applications were found to be supported by any legally admissible material.”
The judge also noted that though “various prominent public spirited persons” offered to “make representations on record but refused to enter the witness-box”.
The judge pointed out that for the last seven years, including the summer vacations, he “religiously sat in the open court from 10AM to 5PM… Not a single soul turned up.”
The judge also noted that the “prosecution started with the case with great enthusiasm and ardour. However, as the case progressed, it became highly cautious and guarded in its attitude, making it difficult to find out as to what the prosecution wanted to prove. However, by the end, the quality of prosecution totally deteriorated and it became directionless and diffident.”
“Also, when the final arguments started, the learned special public prosecutor submitted that he would file written submissions. But instead of filing written submissions, he started arguing the matter orally and argued it for several months. On conclusion of final arguments for the prosecution he did not file written arguments, but instead submitted that he would file it only when the defence would file its written arguments. That was highly unfair.”
The judgment conclusively states: “There is no evidence on the record produced before the court indicating any criminality in the acts allegedly committed by the accused persons relating to fixation of cut-off date, manipulation of first-come first-served policy, allocation of spectrum to dual technology applicants, ignoring ineligibility of STPL and Unitech group companies, non-revision of entry fee and transfer of Rs 200 crore to Kalaignar TV (Pvt Ltd) as illegal gratification. The charge sheet of the instant case is based mainly on mis-reading, selective reading, non-reading, and out of context reading of the official record.”
The judgment concludes, “The end result of the above discussion is that I have absolutely no hesitation in holding that the prosecution has miserably failed to prove any charge against any of the accused, made in its well choreographed charge sheet.”
“Accordingly, all accused are entitled to be acquitted and are acquitted.”
The decisions of the CBI special judge and his searing indictment of the 2G spectrum case arguments by the prosecution are actually an indictment not of the UPA-I but clearly of the prosecution following the legal arguments raised by the latter’s counsel.
The fact that many witnesses would not come forward to give evidence — even in the summer vacations, when the court was specially open for them — indicates that with time and public discussion of the issues being examined, a number of possible witnesses felt that their evidence would not help indict the accused.
For then PM Manmohan Singh, then minister of telecom A Raja and others, the December 21 verdict is an immense relief. The question that remains, however, is: How did this case go so far? From what the CBI’s special judge has recorded, it seems to be more of a political vendetta rather than a public-spirited prosecution.
Of course, the NDA government will have an opportunity to appeal. Aside from the judicial proceedings, it is evident from the statements recorded and the arguments and conclusions made by judge OP Saini that the prosecution was shoddy in its marshalling of facts, and — towards the end — seemed to be clutching at straws.