The ruling BJP, which had been at the forefront in attacking the erstwhile UPA government over the 2G scam, on Thursday advised the Congress not to treat the CBI court’s verdict as a “badge of honour”.
The party also hailed the decision of the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate to go for an appeal in the higher courts against the verdict.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who was the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha when the CAG report on 2G was tabled, said the Congress’s “zero loss theory” was proved wrong when the apex court squashed the spectrum allocation in 2012.
“Though the trial court verdict says nobody was guilty of corruption, investigating agencies will study the case history and look into it,” he said. “The Congress is treating the 2G verdict as a badge of honour, but its zero loss theory was proven wrong when the Supreme Court quashed spectrum allocation in February 2012.”
Senior BJP leader and HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said the Congress was “shamelessly celebrating” the verdict . “The Congress should remember that the SC had cancelled 2G licences issued during the UPA regime, terming the process of allocation as flawed. Subsequently, in the two auctions under BJP government, bids worth about ₹1,76,000 crore were recovered,” he told reporters at the BJP headquarters here.
CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, who wrote at least half a dozen letters to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, saying the loss could be up to ₹1.90 lakh crore, said today the judgment raised more questions than answers.
More questions“It was well established that the allocation of 2G spectrum had caused a big loss calculated to be ₹1,76,000 crore by the CAG.
“The Supreme Court had indicted some of the telecom companies involved for misuse of the allocations and cancelled the licences of the concerned companies.
“Since the CBI case and prosecution have proved inadequate, steps must be taken immediately to pursue the matter legally, so that those who are guilty are punished,” he said.