Because it was designed to collapse like most big scams. To be a true political opportunity, a scam has to be so exaggerated, even judges are left disbelieving.
Does the acquittal of all accused in the 2G case mean there was no telecom scandal?
Not at all. There WAS a telecom scandal, a brazen and big one. It is just that the prosecution was so politicised and mythologised between political interests and breathless activists that nobody bothered doing the boring and diligent job of presenting a coherent case before the judge.
The key to any prosecution, most of all in a case of political corruption, is focus. You need to decide early enough what your objective is. Is the objective headlines, noise, public anger which you can ride to an election victory? Or is it to catch the guilty and have them do their deserved time in jail?
Time and again, the Indian political class has chosen the first over the second. Exaggeration and hype impress the voters, not judges. Courts need hard evidence, not speeches, leaks and tweets. To say that a few political figures of a regional party probably made a few tens of crores in allocating spectrum, breaking their own First-Come-First-Served (FCFS) rule, would never have the sex appeal of a Rs 1.76-lakh crore scandal.
Especially as it then created an environment of ridiculous accounting promiscuity, adding zeroes at will. So, coal became a Rs 3-lakh crore-plus scam. Commonwealth Games, Rs 75,000 crore. So heady was the mood then, and so tempting the zeroes, that even a newspaper usually as cautious and correct as The Hindu “broke” what it called the ISRO-Devas scam of several lakh crores, never mind that the spectrum in space is entirely different from telecom and is available freely in infinity. When last heard, Devas had won a billion-dollar plus arbitration against the Government of India on the deal.
One after the other, these convenient exaggerations are leading to the unravelling of all these cases. Exaggerating scams makes politicians win elections (Bofors, for example) but the guilty all get away. In most cases, as Quattrocchi did famously in Bofors, even with the money.
The 2G case is just the latest example.
The older readers of National Interest will say I have said this before, but then Arun Shourie taught us to never underestimate the power of repetition.
So here I am again. Rs 1.76 lakh crore, the popularly peddled and believed size of the 2G scam in 2007 was 4.41 per cent of India’s GDP. It was a couple of billion dollars more than twice our entire defence budget for that year.
Now think, could the value of a little bit of spectrum be that much? Could India’s telecom sector have paid that kind of money for it? And if so, why didn’t you simply abolish the defence budget and ask the armed forces to auction little bits of the spectrum they hoard every year? They could then buy all the guns, submarines and jets they need, implement the OROP they want, and implement the next pay commission before it is even set up. India’s telecom growth has been held to ransom by that mythology and the BJP government will spend embarrassing months dismounting that tiger.
Coal is an equally cruel example. Of course, there were scandals in coal mine allocations under the UPA as there were in 2G spectrum, Commonwealth Games and elsewhere. But was every coal allotment fraudulent?
Again, could the loss really be the lakhs of crores that Vinod Rai’s CAG, with its “what’s a few more zeroes between friends” approach, conjured up? Because the NDA, particularly BJP, gleefully jumped for the highest figure on offer. As a result, it had no manoeuvre room once it was in the Supreme Court as the government on ‘coalgate’. It watched helplessly as all coal mine allocations, 1993 onwards (including by the six-year Vajpayee government), were set aside. This gave the BJP government its first major crisis that affects a range of sectors from mining to power, metals, cement and fertilisers, banking, almost everything. A new crisis is already building up in our banking sector with legacy telecom companies’ debt of nearly Rs 8 lakh crore getting stressed. Coal and power will be next. You watch this space.
Some bit of exaggeration is fine in politics, particularly as one heads for elections. The opposition everywhere exaggerates charges of corruption and incompetence on the incumbent. Problems arise when this assumes fantastic proportions.
Masayoshi Son, the fabled head of SoftBank, is a serial investor in India. He got an audience with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015 and apparently asked him what kind of information highway he would build when spectrum released in India was like a bicycle track. Japan’s population of 12.76 crore, he pointed out, had 200 MHz of spectrum while India’s 10 times as much had just 40. So why were we being so tight-fisted with a basic infrastructure need?
The reason is simple. When the CAG offered different figures of notional loss in 2G spectrum, from Rs 57,000 crore to Rs 1.76 lakh crore, everybody, from Modi to almost all of the media, jumped for the highest amount. The media has been slowly getting off that kerb. But the BJP is stuck. With every round of spectrum release, it faces the same embarrassing challenge, to justify its Rs 1.76 lakh crore loss fallacy as new auctions yield no more than a fraction of that. That’s why the shyness in freeing up more spectrum, a textbook case of shooting yourself in the foot. It was a touching speech a couple of years ago when speaking at a CAG event, Arun Jaitley cautioned it against exaggeration and drew the line between activism and sensationalism.
We have seen this sad movie more than once in the past, and we are fated to continue watching sequels and repeats. The V.P. Singh-led opposition (BJP included) built Bofors into a monster and India suffered. A fine weapon system was damned while nobody has as yet been punished, nor any money recovered. After one crash (in Bangalore, 14 February 1990) Rajiv Gandhi’s order of Airbus A320s for Indian Airlines was called a scandal and the planes, still with factory paint and grease, were grounded. The flying ban had to be lifted later as the Gulf War required tens of thousands of stranded Indians to be airlifted from Kuwait and Iraq. There’s been no problem with the planes since and even Indigo, India’s largest airline by market share, exclusively uses the same plane. Nobody guilty of corruption has ever been caught or punished.
The Congress similarly exaggerated the injustices and inequalities of ‘India Shining’, and became a prisoner of these over an entire decade. It was unable to take credit for economic growth in its own rule. Or its campaign over what was called the coffin-gate.
Voters are impressed by multiple zeroes, not judges. More the zeroes, more the number of votes you might get. Judges want a logical, clear thread of evidence. In modern, civilised law, jail-terms won’t vary whether you are convicted for stealing Rs 10 crore, Rs 10 thousand, or even, since nothing less than this impresses us these days, Rs 1.76 lakh crore. You need to bring evidence, not just popular outrage and angrier hashtags.
The older readers of National Interest will say I have said this before,
At least the editor should go through the articles before publishing them, this site is theprint.
End of the day, public need to be aware of why the need to cast their vote and to whom they should vote, high time public uses NOTA. Even if election commission decides to have a re-election. Today all politicians are here to use power & money either to fill their treasurey or their party treasurery . Do an eye wash of development work in their constituency. High time we have open debate on what has a particular minister or mla has done in her / his constituency.
Is age the only contributory factor for Mr. Shekhar Gupta becoming senile? Arnab Goswami never tires telling his viewers about the kosher of “Luytens Delhi”, and this case collaborates his rants.
2G licenses were cancelled and never revoked – some companies were fined and executive careers got backtracked. The Court has never thought it right to revoke the old judgement. It has just let go the culprits since Luytens Delhi conveniently decided not to bother. Everyone will forget and forgive this scam and move on. In one way, these kinds of judgements are good. They pave the way for newer cases.
An ex Cand AG official
R P Singh had the guts to question the fictional loss – but he was silenced – he is in the heaven who will be having the last laugh!
A brilliant article that leaves the common man perplexed and helpless
The prosecution failed because it tried to pin the scam on Raja and DMK alone. Raja rightly argued that he kept MMS and the PMO in the loop. In trying to carve out Raja/DMK as the guilty party, the prosecution wrecked its own case by failing to prove criminality. Had MMS /PMO also been investigated the case would have been much stronger. This is how corruption survives in the country. Arguing about zeros or lack of them. Vinod Rai was correct and supreme court took cognizance of his observations. This is BJP’s moment of truth – will they follow up or just yell on TV channels.
It was good ‘choreographed’ scheme to milk the nation’s safe by UPA -2 regime. Place A Raja in Telecom Department
as head, being a lawyer, he can come out of a net. He then played manipulating game; changing closing dates to favor few and blocked others illegally; pretending PM or PMO and Finance Ministers are not in the loop. CBI caught and prosecuted him (and Kanimozi) alone and not PM/ PMO/ Finance Minister or whole group of ministers.
This happened under UPA -2 watch; Scam , CBI inquiry, appointment of SPP, and other prosecutors, and whole plan to delay, misguide the court and public and A Raja being experienced lawyer defended himself, that he was not alone as prosecution says and is not guilty as charged; Learned Judge agreed here; but Learned Judge did not say- PMO knew and whole team of ministers are JOINTLY responsible for SCAM (loot) as they were not put as co-Conspirators (Co-respondents) !? It was a well ‘choreographed’ scheme. Delay,,, wait,,, people will forget and all can be set free . Big loot money- Rs: 1.76,00000,0000000.00 and lot of greasing power, in Banana Republic, and NOTHING HAPPENED. CHOR MACHAYE SHOR…. SPP blame others, Judge blames CBI prosecutors and 7 more years to arrive at the point zero .Great Country like India is fooled by native sons; fooled repeatedly, Gobbldeegooks folks. Yours and mine money. Who is in charge of investigation ??? UPA and NDA both.Politicians and lawyers and judges enjoy…. you watch, What a country ???
Oh my God!! How stupid do you think general public is? Why shouldn’t the telecom sector pay the fair price?? The country has a population of billion plus people. We are being so tight fisted about such things is exactly because we have a huge market. People like you will most probably give away public roads free of cost to coperations because why not? We need some one to maintain them, why be so tight fisted about basic infrastructure needs. While we are at it, let’s give coal mines worth billions for much less price because again why be so tight fisted about basic energy needs. The cooperation can do whatever the hell they want after they have looted the general public. Seriously how solid out are you??
Very good article. Unfortunately, when you say the CAG figures were exaggerated, the mesmerised people will immediately turn on yoy-you congressional. We have come so.much to believe sab chor hain, that any counter argument makes you look like you have benefited by the scam. Real scams go unpunished.
Sorry for the auto-correct.
Absolutely brilliant article, one that causes a rethink. I appreciate the perspective, information, objectivity and balance. Thanks.
Belief in judicial system is degrading day by day… Everybody knows judges are corrupt too. They just know how to paralyze development works and govt. Stop collegium and conduct examinations for recruitment like IAS under UPSC.
Even a cursory reading of extracts from the judgment suggests that the prosecutors’ heart was not in pursuing the case to secure merited convictions.