Issues and ‘real issues’ raised in noisy TV debates and newspapers these days often leave laymen like me completely baffled. I was of course disappointed at the CBI special court acquitting so many powerful people accused in the 2G case. It was disappointing because what is more pleasurable and edifying than to see those who lord over us, politicians and bureaucrats, having their nose rubbed in the dust and marched to prison?
But what were the issues? I could make out only three.
At this stage it is worth recalling that 2G spectrums are used for mobile telephony. And the charges levied by mobile operators for such calls are approved by the Regulator, TRAI. Obviously, they take into account the cost of the operators while fixing such rates. Thus, if the Mobile operators paid Rs. 1,76,000 crores more for the spectrum, the mobile call rates would have been higher to that extent.
The Government, however, chose to sacrifice its own revenue for the sake of lower call rates. Whether the choice was economically right or not may be questioned. But making a choice between welfare maximisation and revenue maximisation is a sovereign function of any Government.
Selling rice at a cheaper rate to the BPL population, which entails a real loss rather than a loss of profit, is also questioned by many economists. But nobody has suggested that this is a crime or a morally reprehensible choice made by the Government or that it is a ‘scam’.
When due to a transport strike or some other bottleneck supplies dry up, petrol pumps or ration shops sell till stocks last and then down their shutters. A classic case of first come first served. Or, one adopts a lottery Housing Boards or Development authorities do while allocating ready-made flats. Adoption of fist come first served basis is, therefore, by itself unexceptionable.
A cheque automatically enters the book of Accounts of a borrower as a liability to be discharged at a later date. This could not possibly have been intended to be a bribe. Who pays bribes through cheques? Moreover, the very idea that a Rs176 thousand Crore scam generated a bribe of Rs200 crores is laughable.
This, to a layman like me, is what the 2G ‘scam’ looked like. The case shows what an irresponsible media and authorities trying to play to the galleries in conjunction can do.
(The author, a former CEO of a company, is a keen observer of current affairs)
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