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In a matter of 48 hours, tables have turned. The BJP was on a high and Congress downcast on Thursday when the Supreme Court scrapped the 122 telecom spectrum licences given by the government. On Saturday, the Congress heaved a sigh of relief and the BJP was crestfallen.
Also, Saturday’s ruling by the special CBI court has brought the curtain down, at least for the present, on the uncertainty the UPA government faced over the future of P Chidambaram, one of its key ministers.
The rulings of the courts may have effectively sealed the lid on former telecom minister A Raja, who went on allotting licences to 11 favoured firms, which included two estate companies. It is unlikely that Raja, under arrest since February 2, 2011, will get relief.
The Supreme Court singled out Raja for all the mess and muck in spectrum allocation. Raja and two other are the only ones still cooling their heels in jail in the case while others, including corporate and DMK Rajya Sabha member Kanimozhi are out on bail.
In the last nearly two years, never a day had passed without Congress facing embarrassment or the Opposition barbs either on 2G scam or other scams such as Commonwealth Games, Adarsh housing colony scam, etc.
The telecom scam had haunted the Manmohan Singh government much as the Bofors scandal did to the Rajiv Gandhi dispensation more than 20 years ago. This will subside at least for now, although it is certain that the lower court’s decision will be challenged in a higher court.
However, quashing of the licences should be considered a huge blow to the government. It has exposed laxity in decision-making and scant respect shown by it to probity in public life, forcing the judiciary to crack the whip to authorise petitioner Subramanian Swamy to move against Raja. Swamy had sought sanction for prosecution of the DMK leader.
The trial court has unwittingly saved huge embarrassment not just for Chidambaram, but also for the Congress and UPA government. The former finance minister is a key member of the Congress and government think tank. He is a member of the crucial cabinet committees on political affairs, security, appointments committee of cabinet, many groups of ministers, and the core committee of Congress, to name a few.
Holding him guilty would have raised a question mark on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, besides a whole lot of officials in the finance and law ministries.
That the ruling came days before the Uttar Pradesh polling was set to being is another reason for relief. The BJP and the ruling BSP had all geared up to take on Congress with increased enthusiasm following Thursday’s SC ruling on 2G case. However, the lower court verdict on Chidambaram came as a damp squib for them.