BJP refutes A Raja's allegations against NDA, Jaitley

BJP refuted the accusations of Telecom Minister A Raja against the NDA government and senior party leader Arun Jaitley, saying that he was speaking "in desperation" and demanded that he be sacked for alleged discrepancies in 2G Spectrum allotment.

BJP on Friday refuted the accusations of Telecom Minister A Raja against the NDA government and senior party leader Arun Jaitley, saying that he was speaking "in desperation" and demanded that he be sacked for alleged discrepancies in 2G Spectrum allotment.

HT Image

"A Raja is speaking in desperation and indulging in falsehood. The core question is if 3G Spectrum can be auctioned why was 2G Spectrum not auctioned to get the best price as suggested by (telecom regulator) TRAI," BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told PTI.

Raja had earlier in the day alleged that the erstwhile BJP-led NDA government had distributed free spectrum to operators. He called it the "biggest ever scam" and said it had deprived the exchequer of over Rs 1,60,000 crore in revenue.

He also accused Jaitley, who has called for his resignation, of favouring major operators during the NDA rule and also defending one of them in the high court.

"Raja has no explanations to all the charges (against him) and is only making baseless allegations against BJP and Jaitley," Prasad said.

The Rajya Sabha MP accused Raja of giving 2G Spectrum in 2007 at 2001 prices though the "telecom sector has grown phenomenally" since.

"Raja should be sacked immediately," he said.