Ratan Tata is not a judge, says BJP

New Delhi:  Countering industrialist Ratan Tata's statement, the BJP has said he is "no judge" and his views will not be given much importance as he himself was a "beneficiary" of UPA's telecom policy.

In an open letter to former telecom entrepreneur and Rajya Sabha MP Rajiv Chandrasekhar, Tata has hit out at the BJP saying that many flip flops in telecom policy occurred during its regime and backed the probe into spectrum allocation covering the period since 2001 when BJP-led NDA was in power.

"He (Tata) is not a judge. He may not be knowing much about what has actually happened," BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar told reporters outside Parliament.

Chandrasekhar had accused Tata of not being transparent and being one of the biggest beneficiaries of the government telecom policy. But Tata maintained that his company Tata Teleservices "has not" been advantaged in any way by former telecom minister A Raja or any earlier minister.

Javadekar said, "Ratan Tata is a great industrialist and I do not want to comment on him but if he is speaking on this (telecom) he should remember that he also owns a telecom company.

"The person who was benefited by UPA policy, public will not give much importance to his statement," the BJP spokesperson said.

Defending NDA's telecom  policy, Javadekar said, "We unleashed the revolution and today we are boasting of more than 600 million mobiles in the country. It is due to the pragmatic and visionary policy of the NDA and that is why we are proud of our policy."

Lashing out at the UPA, he said, "The mess which UPA created is there to be seen and those who benefited out of the UPA policy will always testify for the UPA but that does not mean anything to the public."

The deadlock continued in Parliament over the 2G spectrum allocation issue for the 20th day as the Opposition stuck to its demand for JPC into 2G spectrum issue.

"The whole country is convinced about the massive corruption and people want the guilty to be punished. Government is engaged in spreading falsehood and denying the democratic demand of JPC but we will stick to it," Javdekar said.

CBI seizes 3 diaries from A Raja's Delhi home

New Delhi:  Sources in the CBI say that during the raids at A Raja's home, they have seized three diaries, written in English, crammed with numbers that seem to indicate details of business transactions. 

Till last month, when he was forced to resign, Mr Raja was the Telecom Minister. Before that, he was the Environment Minister in UPA1, and these diaries are reportedly from that period.

Mr Raja's homes in Delhi and his family's homes in Tamil Nadu were raided yesterday, along with the houses of four of his close aides and a man reported to be his business partner.

The  raids came nearly a year after the CBI filed a police case against unknown officials in the Telecom Department for what's being described as India's largest-ever scam and centres on the allocation of valuable 2G spectrum in 2008 when Raja was Telecom Minister. Many said that the raids were a pretense by the government to suggest that the CBI investigation will indeed uncover those responsible for the great 2G robbery. Critics point out that Mr Raja and those who worked closely with him and are now being questioned had plenty of time to get rid of any documentary evidence of their alleged misdeeds.  However, the CBI said yesterday after the raids that it had found "incriminating documents" but did not specify who these were likely to indict.  

He was forced to exit last month after the government's auditor said that Mr Raja had cost the government 1.76 lakh crores by deciding that an auction for 2G spectrum was not necessary.  Instead, he followed a first-come-first-served policy.  The auditor's report also accused Mr Raja of using 2001 prices to determine the rates of licenses in 2008.  

Mr Raja and his supporters have emphasised that the first-come-first-served principle was in fact introduced by his predecessors in the BJP-led NDA regime. 

President gives assent for SC inquiry into charges against Lalli

NEW DELHI: The President has given her assent for a Supreme Court inquiry into charges of financial mismanagement against controversial Prasar Bharti CEO B S Lalli.

Official sources said President Pratibha Patil's assent came on a reference made by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as required under the Prasar Bharti Act.
Pending inquiry, the chief executive officer can be placed under suspension as per the provisions of the Act.

The Presidential reference to the apex court for instituting an inquiry into the charges against him sets in motion his removal process.

The controversial 1971 batch IAS officer of UP cadre, Lalli has been having a feud with the Prasar Bharti Board on running the organisation.

Lalli, who assumed the CEO's office in December 2006, was indicted by the Central Vigilance Commission which accused him of breach of Parliamentary privilege, giving undue favours to some broadcast companies and financial mismanagement.

Searches at Raja's house yield diary with 'incriminating' data

NEW DELHI: A diary with "incriminating" details is believed to have been recovered during the searches conducted by the investigating agency yesterday from the residence of former Telecom Minister A Raja, who will be questioned soon. 
The "diary", according to sources privy to the probe, has some details pertaining to the allocation of 2G spectrum among other incriminating details. 

They said the former Minister will also be questioned by the agency soon. 

CBI sleuths spent considerable time in understanding the entries made in the diary which consist of names of some politicians and corporate honchos, sources said. 

Efforts to contact Raja for his reaction did not fructify as he was not available for comments. 

Meanwhile, the CBI continued to question former Telecom officials and a Chennai-based businessmen whose premised were raided by the agency yesterday. 

Besides Raja, the CBI had conducted searches at premises of R K Chandolia, his former personal secretary, Siddhartha Behuria, then DoT secretary, K Sridhar, then Member, Telecom Commission, A K Srivastava, then Deputy Director General, Access Service Wing, DoT, and his business partner Sadiqui Batcha, Managing Director of Chennai-based Greenhouse Exports. 

Raja was forced to resign as minister on November 14 in the wake of CAG's report that the rates at which 2G spectrum was allotted resulted in a possible loss to the exchequer to the tune of Rs 1.76 lakh crore. 

Besides being accused of undervaluing 2G spectrum, Raja has also been blamed for circumventing the rules to favour companies that did not meet the eligibility criteria for getting spectrum licences. 

The CBI action comes close on the heels of Supreme Court coming down heavily on the CBI on November 22 for failing to question Raja and the Telecom Secretary over the scam, saying it was "beating around the bush". 

The CBI had registered a case on October 21, 2009 against unknown Department of Telecom officials and private persons and companies for allegedly causing loss of thousands of crores of rupees to the exchequer
.

Gadkari files defamation suit against Manish Tewari

MUMBAI: BJP president Nitin Gadkari today filed a criminal defamation complaint against Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari for accusing him of owning a "benami" flat in the scam-tainted Adarsh Housing society here. 
Terming Tewari's statement as "false, reckless and malicious," Gadkari filed a complaint under Section 500 of IPC for defamation in a metropolitan magistrate court here, which directed the Congress leader to file his reply by January 24. 

After the Adarsh scam came to light, Tewari, in a press conference on November 10, had alleged that Gadkari too owned a flat in the plush society in the name of his driver. 

"Tiwari, in order to harm my clean and impeccable reputation and party's image, intentionally indulged in defaming me," Gadkari has said in the complaint. 

"These are unfounded assertions of a beleaguered spokesperson of the ruling party discredited by corrupt practices," he stated. 

In his reaction, Tewari said the BJP chief should "look within". 

"It is an irony that a person who calls Afzal Guru the son-in-law of Congress, the person who uses unparliamentary language for Lalu Prasad Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav, and criticised the Congress in words which can't be repeated, he goes and files defamation cases against us," Tewari said in Delhi. 

The 31-storey Adarsh Society at Colaba in south Mumbai, originally meant for Kargil war heroes, came into controversy after media reports revealed that several politicians, bureaucrats and defence personnel had booked flats there
.

Jagan's primary aim is to stop Rahul from becoming PM: aides

Former Congress MP Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy's primary aim is to ensure that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi doesn't stand a chance in becoming the prime minister, his close followers claim.

"Becoming Andhra Pradesh chief minister is now secondary for Jagan. His prime target is Rahul Gandhi. The objective is to win considerable number of Lok Sabha seats in the state and dent Congress' aspirations of making Rahul Gandhi the prime minister," a close confidante of Jagan said.

According to sources, Jagan is hoping to rally the anti-Congress parties at the national level and emerge as a potent force so as to dictate terms to Congress.

If claims of his key aides and strategists are to be believed, Jagan has already "made some friends" notably in Bihar through his "generous contributions" during the recent assembly elections in the state.

The ex-Congress MP already has good friends in the Reddy brothers (Gali Janardhan and Karunakar) of Karnataka through whom he hopes to enlarge his circle in BJP as well.

In Andhra Pradesh, Jagan is reportedly in consultations with some key leaders of the TRS for possible support in the region in future by assuring them that he would indeed support a separate Telangana state.

"We are still working on various strategies. We shall start putting them in practice after the party is formally launched probably around Sankranti festival," another close confidante of Jagan said.

NDA framed 2G rules but questioning us: Sibal

New Delhi: Ruling Congress party on Wednesday put the ball back into the BJP’s court after the Supreme Court asked investigating agencies to look into the 2G policy framed during NDA rule in 2001. 

“Why there were four (telecom) ministers in quick succession during NDA regime. Government has nothing to say on this. The investigating agency will find it out,” said the Telecom Minister and Congress leader Kapil Sibal reacting to the SC’s observation. 

“You (BJP) frame the rules and then question us,” he added 

Slamming the Opposition for stalling the Parliament, he rued that “lot of important legislations are pending in the Parliament. The BJP is blocking these legislations which would benefit the people.” 

“What sort of Parliamentary democracy is this,” Sibal asked. 

The Parliament was again adjourned today, for the 19th time in a row, following persistent agitation by the Opposition parties in and out of the Parliament.