BJP leader and former Union telecommunication minister Arun Shourie on Saturday declared that he was prepared to answer CBI’s queries on the 2G spectrum allocation during his tenure and alleged that the policy was “twisted” to benefit those close to former union telecommunication minister A. Raja.
“I will be very happy to answer. No difficulty in that. I can even answer in the public hall here. If they invite me to their place... They are also always welcome to my house. No problem,” the senior BJP leader told reporters here when sought for his reaction to the DMK’s persistent charge that Mr Raja merely followed the policy laid down by the NDA regime. Asserting that there was nothing to hide, Mr Shourie said he would make public all the questions put to him by the CBI if it questioned him.
He said Mr Raja changed the basis of ‘first come first served’ and also the priority list to favour a firm. He had not followed ‘any principle’ during spectrum allocation but “broke the entire system.” But during the NDA rule, everything was done as per law.
Issues like policy decision, projects and important matters pertaining to any allotment were referred to the group of ministers, which in turn got Cabinet’s approval, during his tenure, Mr Shourie said.
On whether CBI’s probe was proceeding in the correct direction, he said much of the evidence regarding front companies of Mr Raja was provided to the investigating agency a year ago.
Earlier, speaking at the Nani Palkhivala memorial lecture, he hailed the Supreme Court order on monitoring the CBI probe on 2G Spectrum allocation from 2001.