<p>Maverick politician Subramanian Swamy is adept in sensationalising issues and he never misses an opportunity to be in the limelight. However, his intervention in the mammoth 2G spectrum scam to expose the guilty has earned him wholesome praise. In November 2008, he found something fishy in the hush-hush allotment of 2G-level telecom spectrum to some dubious companies. He hasn’t rested since then. The revelations of CAG, Justice Shivraj Patil Committee and the draft report of PAC have only reinforced Swamy’s contention of massive fraud. With a notional loss to the exchequer amounting to Rs 1,76,000 crore and alleged bribe money of about Rs 60,000 crore, it is the mother of all scams.<br /><br />The sheer magnitude of the scandal has shocked the nation’s conscience like never before. Pricing of the spectrum at 2001 level in 2008, evading open auction, the fraudulent system of first-come-first served to favour a few companies, arbitrary advancement of the cut-off date for applications and bypassing of all constitutional scheme of checks and balances were tailor-made for licenses to make colossal profits. <br /><br />The entire process followed lacked transparency. Of the 122 new licenses granted, 85 were given to firms that did not satisfy the eligibility criteria. The reader has a glimpse of how dirty tricks were played by some corporates to enter the telecom market circumventing due procedure. There is a well documented account of the curious case of Swan Telecom, a shell company owned by the Anil Ambani group.<br /><br />Swamy’s PIL in the Supreme Court, his letters to the prime minister seeking sanction to prosecute A Raja and the role of P Chidambaram, the decisive intervention of the Supreme Court in monitoring the investigation to go after the culprits, abysmal failure of TRAI to intervene, the long delay between filing of the FIR and the first CBI raid, all receive adequate attention. After doggedly pursuing the case against Raja, Swamy has trained his guns on the former finance minister. His contention is that Chidambaram is equally culpable as Raja is since the spectrum price was fixed jointly by them. True to his style, the author selectively picks his targets and leaves out the rest. There are only hints of a larger conspiracy. He is silent on behind-the-scenes manipulations. <br /><br />Inexplicably, he spares Nira Radia-linked entities. There is only a passing reference to the role of intrepid whistleblower Ashirvatham Achary.<br /><br />It is an alarmist view of graft, at times exaggerated. He doesn’t substantiate his argument that the allotment of spectrum license to some firms will pose a threat to national security. He is not prepared to blame liberalisation for the gargantuan scam and asserts that free market remains the best bet. The final chapter is all his homily on solving corruption. He harps on a new ideology to combat corruption and pins his hope on a new breed of Indian leaders — ‘educated courageous, and rational risk takers’.<br /><br />It is a well-researched work with an abundance of annexure, mainly an array of official documents, newspaper clippings and his own letters. Swamy has deftly reconstructed a blow-by-blow account of the scam, with its ramifications. It is a remarkable job of digging up details. But with too many official documents and technical jargons, the narrative is akin to a thesis that can’t sustain a reader’s interest. Those who are looking for sensational stuff are bound to be disappointed. All the details mentioned in the book are in the public domain. The Harvard professor has failed to explain to the average reader in simple terms what the complex scam is all about. To make matters worse, it is a badly edited work with repetitions and typos impeding the smooth flow of reading.</p>
<p>Maverick politician Subramanian Swamy is adept in sensationalising issues and he never misses an opportunity to be in the limelight. However, his intervention in the mammoth 2G spectrum scam to expose the guilty has earned him wholesome praise. In November 2008, he found something fishy in the hush-hush allotment of 2G-level telecom spectrum to some dubious companies. He hasn’t rested since then. The revelations of CAG, Justice Shivraj Patil Committee and the draft report of PAC have only reinforced Swamy’s contention of massive fraud. With a notional loss to the exchequer amounting to Rs 1,76,000 crore and alleged bribe money of about Rs 60,000 crore, it is the mother of all scams.<br /><br />The sheer magnitude of the scandal has shocked the nation’s conscience like never before. Pricing of the spectrum at 2001 level in 2008, evading open auction, the fraudulent system of first-come-first served to favour a few companies, arbitrary advancement of the cut-off date for applications and bypassing of all constitutional scheme of checks and balances were tailor-made for licenses to make colossal profits. <br /><br />The entire process followed lacked transparency. Of the 122 new licenses granted, 85 were given to firms that did not satisfy the eligibility criteria. The reader has a glimpse of how dirty tricks were played by some corporates to enter the telecom market circumventing due procedure. There is a well documented account of the curious case of Swan Telecom, a shell company owned by the Anil Ambani group.<br /><br />Swamy’s PIL in the Supreme Court, his letters to the prime minister seeking sanction to prosecute A Raja and the role of P Chidambaram, the decisive intervention of the Supreme Court in monitoring the investigation to go after the culprits, abysmal failure of TRAI to intervene, the long delay between filing of the FIR and the first CBI raid, all receive adequate attention. After doggedly pursuing the case against Raja, Swamy has trained his guns on the former finance minister. His contention is that Chidambaram is equally culpable as Raja is since the spectrum price was fixed jointly by them. True to his style, the author selectively picks his targets and leaves out the rest. There are only hints of a larger conspiracy. He is silent on behind-the-scenes manipulations. <br /><br />Inexplicably, he spares Nira Radia-linked entities. There is only a passing reference to the role of intrepid whistleblower Ashirvatham Achary.<br /><br />It is an alarmist view of graft, at times exaggerated. He doesn’t substantiate his argument that the allotment of spectrum license to some firms will pose a threat to national security. He is not prepared to blame liberalisation for the gargantuan scam and asserts that free market remains the best bet. The final chapter is all his homily on solving corruption. He harps on a new ideology to combat corruption and pins his hope on a new breed of Indian leaders — ‘educated courageous, and rational risk takers’.<br /><br />It is a well-researched work with an abundance of annexure, mainly an array of official documents, newspaper clippings and his own letters. Swamy has deftly reconstructed a blow-by-blow account of the scam, with its ramifications. It is a remarkable job of digging up details. But with too many official documents and technical jargons, the narrative is akin to a thesis that can’t sustain a reader’s interest. Those who are looking for sensational stuff are bound to be disappointed. All the details mentioned in the book are in the public domain. The Harvard professor has failed to explain to the average reader in simple terms what the complex scam is all about. To make matters worse, it is a badly edited work with repetitions and typos impeding the smooth flow of reading.</p>