Raja brazens it out, says he will not resign

Communications and IT Minister A Raja today said he would not resign over allegations of his involvement in the 2G spectrum scam and added that AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa had no "moral right" to speak on the matter. 2G scam in a nutshell

Communications and IT Minister A. Raja on Friday said he would not resign over allegations of his involvement in the 2G spectrum scam and added that AIADMK chief J. Jayalalithaa had no "moral right" to speak on the matter.

HT Image

"The matter is sub judice. We will prove everything in the court...The question of my resigning does not arise," Raja said on the sidelines of a national e-governance meeting in New Delhi.

"We followed the 1999 telecom policy while giving 2G licences," he told reporters.

Raja, a DMK MP and a key ally of the ruling alliance, has been accused of ignoring the advice of the finance and law ministries, as also the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India while allocating the spectrum. See cartoon

On Jayalalithaa's offer to back the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) if it sacked the minister, Raja said: "She (Jayalalithaa) has no moral right to speak on this."

Jayalalithaa had on Thursday offered to back the ruling UPA if it decided on sacking Raja over his alleged involvement in the 2G spectrum scam. The Congress had rejected her offer.

The telecom department had followed the policy of first-come-first-serve basis in the allocation of 2G spectrum licences and the cut-off date was arbitrarily changed and the licences were also awarded to just 120 of the 575 applicants.

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) Wednesday submitted to the government its report on the controversial 2G spectrum allotment that is understood to have caused a loss of over Rs.170,000 crore to the national exchequer.

The price at which telecom operators were allotted the spectrum in 2008 was based on 2001 prices.