Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MP A Raja demanded on 3rd august 2022 that the recent auctions of the 5G spectrum bands should be probed. Andimuthu Raja was the Telecom Minister in the UPA government and was one of the accused in the 2G scam of 2008-2009.
While interacting with the media, A Raja said that the 5G spectrum should have been sold at a cost of Rs. 5 lakh crores as claimed by the Union Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. A Raja said that the spectrum auction was done for Rs 1.5 lakh crores only, and therefore there is a huge scam in it. He compared the amount with the ‘scam’ amount of ₹1.76 crore in 2G auction as calculated by the CAG, and said that as 5G has more spectrum, it should have fetched more for the government.
A Raja said, “When I recommended only 30 MHz of spectrum to TRAI, the regulatory authority, the then CAG Vinod Rai said ₹ 1.76 lakh crore loss to the Government. But now 51 GHz of 5G spectrum is being sold for less amount.” He said that the government should investigate how much fraud is there in this auction. He also sought a probe of Vinod Rai’s 2G report. He stated that only an investigation can determine Rai’s purpose to make such an audit.
A Raja further said, “When you search for something on the internet, you will get results in 10 seconds when you use 2G, 5 seconds when you use 4G, and in 5G, you will get the results in a second. That is how efficient 5G is. When you compare the numbers based on this efficiency, the 5G auction should have attracted bids worth at least Rs 5 or 6 lakh crore. We don’t know if the planning or estimation was incorrect, if they simply got these numbers from the air, or if the Union government has colluded with certain corporate companies to conduct this scam. All of this has to be investigated now.”
A total of Rs 1.5 lakh crore worth of bids were made for the recently completed 5G auctions, with Mukesh Ambani’s Jio winning over half of the airwaves auctioned with a bidding of Rs 88,078 crore.
2G ‘scam’ and A Raja
Allegations about the allotment of coal blocks and the 2G spectrum had a significant impact on Indian politics during the UPA government. The CAG reports were devastating for the second UPA government. Due to the 2G spectrum being allocated without an auction, the CAG Vinod Rai had assessed a presumed loss to the exchequer of Rs 1.76 lakh crore in November 2010. While nothing actually was lost by the government, it meant that the exchequer would have benefited by a projected Rs. 1.76 lakh crore if the 2G spectrum had been auctioned.
It is notable that CAG had calculated the presumptive loss in the 2G auction in the range of Rs 58,000 crore and Rs 1.76 lakh crore, but the highest amount was only quoted by the media and it remained in public memory.
A Raja, the telecom minister at the time, was one of the accused. He was charged with altering the first-come-first-served rule by advancing the deadline for applications to be awarded spectrum in exchange for alleged bribes to benefit certain telecom companies. As the perpetrator of the fraud, Raja also spent time behind bars. Howeve,r in 2017, a special court acquired everyone accused in the case, including A Raja. The court had said case was baseless and it was made by exaggerating things beyond recognition to astronomical levels. CBI had appealed against the verdict at the Delhi High Court, but the high court dismissed the appeal earlier this year.