FRONT PAGE | Thursday, October 29, 2009 | Email | Print | 
Raja insulted top babus for not toeing his line
J Gopikrishnan | New Delhi
After having gone ahead with the 2G spectrum licence allotment, thereby effectively ignoring the Prime Minister’s written instructions not to do so without informing him, Telecom Minister A Raja turned his attention to his senior officials, including Member (Finance) and Secretary (Telecom), berating them for “lack of understanding” and “creating confusion”. Both officials had opposed Raja’s first-come-first-served policy and fixing 2001 prices for licences issued in 2007.
Documents available with The Pioneer demonstrate how Raja bulldozed his way despite advice for caution from his senior officials. Coming down heavily on Manju Madhavan, then Member (Finance) in the Department of Telecommunication, for objecting to the first-come-first-served method and suggesting alternative steps, Raja issued an internal note on December 4, 2007.
“Since these suggestions (for auction) are not factually correct … as such they should be ignored. This type of continuous confusion observed on the file, whoever be the officer concerned, does not show any legitimacy and integrity but only their vested interests,” the Minister wrote in an internal note to then Telecom Secretary DS Mathur.
Raja continued to heap up anger on the hapless lady officer. “Member (Finance) should have checked the facts with Secretary-Telecom before putting a note on the file,” he said, responding to Madhavan’s suggestion for competitive pricing through auction. Incidentally, this note was a warning to Mathur also, as he had consistently supported her views. Madhavan went on voluntary retirement within a month of the incident.
The two officials were essentially sticking to the note of caution issued by the Prime Minister to Raja on November 2, 2007. The Pioneer on Wednesday revealed the file noting of then Law Minister HR Bhardwaj, asking for an EGoM to finalise the issue.
After Mathur’s retirement on December 31, 2007, Raja managed to bring his trusted official Siddharth Behura as Secretary. Behura had earlier worked with Raja, during the Minister’s tenure in the Environment Ministry. Within ten days of assuming office (on January 10, 2008), Behura issued what is now assailed as a scandalous decision to reverse the cut-off date (last date of spectrum/licence applications) from October 1, 2007 to September 25, 2007.
Behura in April issued another controversial order waiving regulations on merger and lock-in period to facilitate companies like Swan and Unitech to offload their shares to multinational companies at whopping prices. Behura retired on September 30, 2009. Raja gifted his trusted lieutenant the chairmanship in a Chennai-based joint venture project - C-DoT Alcatel Research Centre.
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