The much awaited alleged 2G scam verdict was finally out today. A special CBI court acquitted all accused, including former telecom minister A Raja and DMK MP Kanimozhi, in the 2G spectrum allocation scam cases. All of the 19 accused were acquitted of all charges in the Enforcement Directorate’s money laundering case which comes under the gamut of the 2G scam case.
Details of the judgement are yet awaited but Congress, which was at the helm of the Government when the alleged scam took place, re-iterated its “zero loss”, no scam theory. Congress leader Kapil Sibal stated:
This verdict is both a moral and legal victory for the Congress Party. I have been saying all along that this was not a scam. It was a scam by Vinod Rai.
P Chidambaram said:
Allegation of a major scam involving the highest levels of Government was never true, was not correct and that has been established today.
NDTV reporter former PM Manmohan Singh as saying:
https://twitter.com/Suparna_Singh/status/943726804505726976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
It is pertinent to note here that although the special CBI Court has reportedly declared the above, the Supreme Court had in 2012 itself declared that the allocation of 2G spectrum by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government was “illegal” and was an example of the arbitrary exercise of power. It had then cancelled all 122 telecom licences allotted on or after January 10, 2008 to 11 companies during the tenure of the former telecom minister, A. Raja.
The details of the judgement are awaited, but one lawyer on social media put forth a possible explanation:
https://twitter.com/AnirbanFromRLF/status/943718932179030016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Meanwhile, Congress was obviously expected to tow the “no scam” line and attack Vinod Rai, some “journalists” too seemed to parrot the same line:
https://twitter.com/DilliDurAst/status/943713507408625665?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/bainjal/status/943715578212007936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/Bhayankur/status/943716425268584449?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/mihirssharma/status/943712565967822848?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/Nidhi/status/943718842815123456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/ShekharGupta/status/943720570109046784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
It was quite amusing to see journalist question the existence of a scam (on which the Supreme Court had already ruled), just because a lower court had acquitted the accused. Just because a murder accused stands acquitted, does a journalist claim that the murder itself did not take place? Instead of questioning the prosecution or the courts, or in fact waiting for the full judgement, some journalists as above jumped on to the Congress line of though: attack Vinod Rai and declare that the scam never existed.
Understandably, social media users gave fitting responses to such so-called unbiased “journalists”:
https://twitter.com/attomeybharti/status/943724382328799233?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/RpG_89/status/943721812969496576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The original anti-corruption crusader reminded us of history:
https://twitter.com/Swamy39/status/943724947871895552?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Journalists who had played a pivotal role in breaking the 2G scam reacted as below:
https://twitter.com/jgopikrishnan70/status/943715696252420101?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/thesuniljain/status/943714525135585280?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Other journalists put out a completely different perspective, compared to those who readily toed Congress’s line of thought:
Even if the CBI and ED appeal against this verdict, which is very likely, the media has chosen its narrative: Question the very existence of a scam and tarnish the messenger i.e. Vinod Rai, then then CAG. This, even before reading the verdict and understanding what went wrong: Was the prosecution’s case weak or sabotaged? Was the evidence insufficient to establish guilt beyond reasonable doubt, considering the burden of proof is higher in criminal cases? Was justice subverted by powerful politicians or businessmen? No, stupid, there was no scam!