2G Spectrum scam- I'am Not worried about Money we have lost, but the faith we are loosing in the Indian Democratic System

While pursuing my graduation I have decided that I will contribute some portion {small though very precious] of my income for the welfare of my country. I have started doing it, but after looking at all this scams- CWG, Adarsh scam and 2G spectrum scam I am dropping off my faith on Indian democratic system. And not only me, there are millions of Indians who have same state of mind. Now my heart is not ready to pay even income tax. It asks me- why are you contributing your precious & hard-earned money for the welfare of any individual {politicians}?

And friends,

This state of mind is very dangerous because out of total population of our country, 70% are below 30 years age {youth or so called “Demographic Dividend”}. And once they have made up any idea in their mind it very difficult to change. I am not worried about money which we have lost in -2G Scam-176,379 crores rupees or USD 39 billion, CWG- 35000 crores but the faith we are losing in Indian political and governance system.

Through this article I am just putting light on 2G spectrum scam and involvement of many big shot people including Businessmen, politicians and many media icons.

2G spectrum scam-

The 2G spectrum scam involved officials in the government of India illegally undercharging mobile telephony companies for frequency allocation licenses, which they would use to create 2G subscriptions for cell phones. The shortfall between the money collected and the money which the law mandated to be collected is 176379 crores rupees or USD 39 billion. The issuing of licenses occurred in 2008, but the scam came to public notice when the Indian Income Tax Department was investigating political lobbyist Nira Radia.

*Parties involved

The selling of the licenses brought attention to three groups of entities - politicians who had the authority to sell licenses, corporations who were buying the licenses and media professionals who mediated between the politicians and the corporations.

A} Politicians involved

A. Raja, the Ex-Minister of Communications and Information Technology who sold the license

Kanimozhi, Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament

N.K. Singh, Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament

Annu Tandon, Lok Sabha Member of Parliament

Poongothai Aladi Aruna Tamil Nadu Minister for Information Technology, DMK

B} Corporations involved

· Unitech Group a real estate company entering the telecom industry with its 2G bid; sold 60% of its company stake at huge profit to Telenor after buying licensing (Including land values properties for towers)

· Swan Telecom sold 45% of its company stake at huge profit to Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat) after buying licensing[2]

· Loop Mobile

· Videocon Telecommunications Limited

· S Tel

· Reliance Communications

· Tata Communications

C} Media persons involved

· Nira Radia, a corporate lobbyist whose conversations with politicians and corporate entities was recorded by the government and leaked creating the Nira Radia tapes controversy

· Barkha Dutt, an NDTV journalist alleged to have lobbied for A. Raja's appointment as minister

· Vir Sanghvi, a Hindustan Times editor alleged to have edited articles to reduce blame in the Nira Radia tapes

Shortfall of money

A. Raja arranged the sale of the 2G spectrum licenses below their market value. Swan Telecom, a new company with few assets, bought a license for Rs. 1537 crore. Shortly thereafter, the board sold 45% of the company to Etisalat for Rs. 4200 crore. Similarly, a company formerly invested in real estate and not telecom, the Unitech Group, purchased a license for Rs. 1661 crore and the company board soon after sold a 60% stake in their wireless division for Rs. 6200 crore to Telenor.The nature of the selling of the licenses was that licenses were to be sold at market value, and the fact that the licenses were quickly resold at a huge profit indicates that the selling agents issued the licenses below market value.Nine companies purchased licenses and collectively they paid the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology's telecommunications division Rs. 10,772 crore. The amount of money expected for this licensing by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India was 1,76,700 crore.

Conclusion-: So at the end of this article I just want to say it is our responsibility to change this scenario of our country. And if we can’t do this we can’t call ourselves “Demographic Dividend” and these so called demographic dividends will convert into national debt in the future.

Regards

Garvit Dave