Author: Editorial
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: December 9, 2010
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/302367/Bogus-raids-by-CBI.html
A Raja should be arrested and sent to jail
Only the naïve, the ill-informed and
the propagandists of the scam-tainted regime that now rules India would be
impressed by the 'raids' conducted by officials of the CBI at the homes of
former Telecom Minister A Raja, former Telecom Secretary Siddarth Behura,
the DMK leader's personal secretary RK Chandolia, Telecom Commission member
K Sridhar and Deputy Director-General in the Department of Telecom AK Srivastava
on Wednesday. Mr Raja was forced to resign from the Union Cabinet following
the Supreme Court's scathing observations on the 2G Spectrum scam and the
nationwide outrage over the public exchequer being robbed of Rs 1.76 lakh
crore by a Minister with scant regard for probity and even lesser respect
for integrity. That the Great Spectrum Robbery happened under the watch of
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (his unimpeachable integrity did not prevent
him from maintaining a strange and as yet unexplained silence) has only served
to feed popular anger over blatant corruption in the UPA Government. Mr Raja
resigned from the Cabinet and exited the Telecom Ministry, which he had converted
into a cash-and-carry counter, on November 14. It's absurd to expect that
between then and now he and his corrupt stooges in the bureaucracy who facilitated
the 2G Spectrum loot would not have exerted themselves to remove all evidence
of their misdeeds. We will, of course, be told that the CBI has seized 'incriminating
documents' and that the raids were a 'success', but that's neither believable
nor actionable. The CBI's record in investigating the 2G Spectrum scam till
the Supreme Court took the agency, which reports to the Prime Minister, to
task reflects poorly not only on the institution but also its political master.
Had the CBI been serious about getting to the bottom of the spectrum scam,
it would have raided these premises a long time ago and not given the thieves
of Sanchar Bhavan adequate time to erase all traces of their crime.
Staging a mock raid by the CBI is no movement
forward to identify, expose and punish the men who sold 2G Spectrum for a
song. It is, to put it crudely, hogwash meant to distract attention and serve
as a placebo. Mr Gurudas Dasgupta, the veteran CPI parliamentarian, was not
exaggerating when he brushed aside Wednesday's so-called 'raid' by the CBI
and demanded that Mr Raja should be arrested, sent to Tihar Jail, treated
as a class three prisoner and prosecuted for his criminal cut-price sale of
2G Spectrum. Citizens of this country have suffered worse for far lesser crimes;
many innocent people have been left to rot in jail on mere suspicion or on
the basis of false allegations. Second, the Government would be wrong to believe
that Wednesday's drama will calm the sense of anger and outrage that prevails
from Kashmir to Kanyakumari over Mr Raja's unrestricted loot and serve to
silence the Opposition which has been demanding the setting up of a Joint
Parliamentary Committee to inquire into the scam. The nation has the right
to know who are the beneficiaries of the money that was minted by under-selling
2G Spectrum to dubious firms; why the Prime Minister did not step in and stop
his Minister from cheating the people; and, the as-yet-unrevealed larger conspiracy.
The Opposition must not wilt.
