Former communications minister A. Raja has reiterated his innocence in the spectrum case while insisting that he had merely followed the national telecom policy of 1999 (which was against auctioning spectrum) to ensure that the common man benefited; so much so, the tele-density trebled to 100 crore users during his tenure.
“I broke the cartel controlled by just four or five companies by allotting 2G to even newcomers on a first-come-first-served basis. Perhaps that was one reason why I landed in this trouble”, said the senior DMK leader in an hour-long interview on popular Tamil news channel Puthiya Thalaimurai on Sunday, his first media interact since being released on bail on May 15.
The ex-minister pointed out that the CBI did not accept the Comptroller and Auditor General’s estimated loss of `1, 76,000 crores to the exchequer due to his 2G allotment, nor did the court accept the CBI figure of `33,000 crores. The media and the others went by the maxim that the King could do no wrong while responding to the CAG figure, which even the Supreme Court said was “mind-boggling”.
“Why should I bother if the CAG, sitting in an air-conditioned room, keeps on repeating that the earth is flat and not round, when the trial court rejected the CAG figure?” Raja asked.