While the BJP rightly guns for the DMK's A. Raja for his role in the spectrum scam, R Jagannathan in the DNA reminds us why the telecommunications ministry has been a mother lode for corruption for decades (remember Sukh Ram in the Narasimha Rao cabinet?) because it has always dealt in scarcity and big money is always made whenever there is policy confusion and scope for the use of discretionary power. He goes on to enumerate the role played by Pramod Mahajan in the Vajpayee government in making corruption hit the big time:
A close friend of the Ambanis, Mahajan allowed Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Infocomm (now Anil Ambani's Reliance Communications) to enter mobile telephony through the back door. At that point, basic fixed-line services were charged lower licence fees than mobile services, but Mahajan made a policy change that classified wireless in local loop (WLL) as a fixed-line technology when it was no different from mobile technology. This essentially put Ambani on a better wicket than the rest: he paid lower licence fees for so-called basic fixed-line telephony that was really mobile telephony in another garb.
Read the full piece at DNA
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