In a fresh twist to the 2G controversy, it has now come to light that the draft of the official note sent to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on 2G spectrum allocation was prepared following a series of meetings between former Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrashekhar and top PMO officials, including principal secretary in the PMO T.K.A. Nair.

The minutes of the meetings have reportedly been sent to finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is to meet the PM in New York to discuss the issue.
A question was also being raised by a section of government officials on how details of a matter that is “sub judice” were released following an application under the RTI Act.
It was learnt that there were at least 13 meetings and over 30 emails exchanged between the then Cabinet Secretary and top PMO officials to discuss the controversy and prepare a common note.
Those present in the meeting (started February 3, 2011) were Mr Chandra-shekhar, joint secretary in the PMO Vini Mahajan, director in the PMO Amit Aggarwal, secretary (telecommunications) R. Chandrashekhar, additional secretary (telecommunications) S.R. Rao, joint secretary to CS Rajiv Kumar, secretary (law) D.R. Meena, secretary (economic affa-irs, finance) R. Gopalan, Mr V. Julka (finance) and director (infra, finance) Prabhat Mishra.
The note, as prepared, read: “Text of this agreed position was received from Cabinet Secretary/PMO after discussion on the proceeding dates. Chronology of facts was prepared in consultation with the concerned authorities”
Sources disclosed that there was initially an attempt to keep these meetings informal and not take down any minutes. However, when the note was sent to Mr Pranab Mukherjee, he apparently went through it since it was prepared in consultation. It may be recalled that in a petition filed by Dr Subramaniam Swamy in the Supreme Court it was alleged that the issue of spectrum pricing was decided by the then communications minister, Mr A. Raja, along with Union home minister P. Chidambaram, who was then the finance minister. Dr Swamy has also filed documents in court showing that between January and July 2008 Mr Raja and Mr Chidambaram met on four occasions to fix spectrum prices.
The BJP on Saturday again raked up the issue with senior party leader Yashwant Sinha saying the Prime Minister cannot wash his hands off the entire controversy.
RTI activist Subhash Aggarwal, however, accessed a copy of the letter in which Mr Mukherjee, who was then external affairs minister and head of the group of ministers on spectrum-related issues, including pricing, had written to the PM saying there was an urgent need for the government to have a “clearly stated policy” on issues of telecom licences and spectrum.
“While it is the prerogative of the government to frame, revise and change the (telecom) policy, it is also the responsibility of the government to do so in a transparent manner and then follow the stated policy in letter and spirit. Thus, it is essential for the DoT to issue the new norms immediately so that the spectrum allocation is done in a transparent manner,” Mr Mukherjee had written to Dr Singh on December 26, 2007.