Reference Auto

With the arrest of former telecommunications minister A Raja, has the government kick-started the process to purge the country’s polity of corruption or is it a gimmick to win over the people in the forthcoming elections?

Raja, who was arrested for the 2G scam, was apparently given no VIP treatment in Tihar jail, and just like any other prisoner, he had to get up at 6 am to attend the roll call. He also slept on the floor the previous night. He did not make a fuss about the food.

The 47-year-old minister, who is the inmate of jail no. 1, is keeping to himself, as per information given by a senior jail official. Raja was arrested for his alleged role in the 2G spectrum allocation scam.

Earlier, the CBI had informed the court that Raja had refused to co-operate with the sleuths. Besides, on Wednesday, Reliance Communications chief Anil Ambani was questioned along with Raja as the investigating agency feels Ambani was a major beneficiary of the 2G scam.

The CBI wanted Ambani to reveal his investment in a telecom company by the name Swan Telecom.

Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Usman Balwa was also sent to Tihar jail along with Raja. Balwa made a plea to have home-made food and a special mattress as he suffers from severe back ache.

The CBI said that in 2008 Raja had tweaked the telecom rules to benefit Swan and another company, Unitech.

According to the agency, the spectrum auction was not done in a proper manner and Raja decided to follow the first-come first-serve policy charted by previous governments.

Swan and Unitech clinched the licences, thanks to Raja, and even before rolling out telecom services, Swan and Unitech started hawking stake to foreign companies, raking in astronomical profits.

This comes as a clear indication that the government had sold spectrum at dirt cheap rates and caused a massive loss to the exchequer.

For instance, Swan paid Rs 1,537 crore for licence and offloaded 45% to Etisalat, raking in a profit of Rs 4,730 crore while Unitech paid Rs 1,661 as licence fee and sold 60% stake to Telenor for a whopping Rs 6,200 crore.

Now, will Raja be made to stay in jail for a year or two? If this happens, it will send tremors across our polity telling India’s representative to come clean and work for the people and development and not plunder money meant for the public.

This can pave the way for a purged political system in India that can help propel development and inclusive growth (where the underprivileged also reap benefits of growth).

But if Raja is out in, say, a few days or even a month, it could send a wrong signal to the people that the arrest was just a sham and could encourage corrupt politicians to pursue their agenda with zeal.