Pradip Baijal shielding himself: Congress

New Delhi: “The government of Dr Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi had to face a lot of shame because of the 2G scam. Repeatedly they used to talk about zero loss and make fun of the CAG report,” Mr Prasad said in Bengaluru. Mr Baijal, an accused in the 2G spectrum allocation scam case, has alleged in a self-published book, The Complete Story of Indian Reforms: 2G, Power and Private Enterprise — A Practitioner’s Diary, that Dr Singh had warned him of “harm” if he did not cooperate.

He also alleged that the CBI wanted him to “implicate” Mr Arun Shourie and Mr Ratan Tata in the case. Mr Baijal said he was “not treated properly” after he gave recommendations on the unified licensing regime as Trai chairman. “That led to many problem and that led to adverse inference against me by the ruling party then.” “When I met Prime Minister late, he said that you must listen to your minister and you must take his view in to consideration. I said his view will get me in to lot of trouble,” he said.

Mr Dayanidhi Maran, who was the telecom minister in UPA-1 from May 2004 to 2007, allegedly threatened Mr Baijal with “serious consequences”, if he gave recommendations on unified licences that would have replaced the old system of giving out permits on first-come-first-serve basis. “Dayanidhi Maran told me in my first meeting with him not to give unified licensing recommendations as directed by the Cabinet of the previous government. He further indicated that there would be serious consequences if I did,” Mr Baijal wrote.

When he took up the matter with Dr Singh, he wrote, “The PM also told me to cooperate with my minister in the coalition government he headed, since non-cooperation could compromise his government.” Mr Baijal said that both Mr Maran and his successor Mr A. Raja suppressed his recommendations and sold spectrum to “a selected few without following any rules or procedures.”

Mr Baijal, who was appointed head of Trai by the NDA government in 2003, said the 2G scam trail began under Mr Maran. Mr Baijal has alleged that Ratan Tata in 2004 informed him that “he was being threatened by Dayanidhi Maran that unless he accepted the merger of Tata Sky with Sun TV, he would ruin him. Ratan Tata refused to cooperate.” Dismissing Mr Baijal’s charges, Congress communication department in-charge Randeep Surjewala said, “It is all imaginary, false and baseless”. He alleged that Mr Baijal had written this to “shield” himself from the CBI as he himself was an accused in the scam.