The biggest turmoil in the Indian telecom sphere seems to be looking imminent now, especially in the never-ending fights over spectrum. Now, the situation may further muddle-up if the alleged scam turns true that can even pull the Prime Minister and Finance Minister into trouble after Telecom Minister's recent comments in an interview.

The Indian telecom Minister A Raja (left) lashed out at those who tried to bring charges of misappropriation against him.

In a TV interview, Raja rejected charges of selling licences and spectrum at unimaginably low prices. As a result, the national exchequer had to incur huge losses.

He mentioned a mysterious lobby that he 'broke' and said that he is now targeted just because he broke the cartel. He also countered the charges saying that there are number of private companies were part of this cartel. Raja didn’t name any politician but a cartel is normally sponsored by politicians.

Raja said, “I want to ensure a healthy competition and to ensure that I had to break the cartel”.

Raja cried out saying, “I have not caused losses to Exchequer”. He repeated the same comment that he made couple of weeks back that he would resign if proved guilty.

Raja said in the interview, "We have absolutely no disagreement with the Finance Ministry over the spectrum and licence fee. We are working in consultation with each other and all decisions have been taken with prior permission of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh”.

It may take a completely new turn as he said that Prime Minister was in the loop behind all the decisions taken in the spectrum issue.

If Raja from DMK party is found guilty who happens to be an ally of Congress, serious questions would be raised against the entire ruling UPA (United Progressive Alliance) coalition.

Raja said the present relaxation of the rules would generate revenues of $2 billion from licence fees.

Criticism
Just a week back, Samajwadi Party (SP) Politician Amar Singh accused Raja of causing losses of $11 billion (Rs. 60,000 crore) to the national exchequer by adopting a “wrong policy” during the allotment of the 2G spectrum to existing licence holders.

The Delhi High Court had even sought a response from the Union government on Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the use of a first come-first served method.

The left parties who joined hands in Congress while forming the government have made the strongest allegations. They said that the policies have been tailored to favour private players. X

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