Congress slams Centre for seeking 'modification' in 2G case verdict

The Congress on Saturday, 27 April, said the BJP's "hypocrisy knows no bounds" and alleged that while it called the administrative allocation of 2G spectrum under the UPA a "scam", the Narendra Modi government was now seeking permission from the Supreme Court to "give away spectrum" without an auction.

The opposition party's attack came after the Centre on Monday moved the Supreme Court seeking modification of its verdict in the 2G spectrum case which said the State was duty bound to adopt the auction route while transferring or alienating the country's natural resources.

A top source, however, later said the government is not seeking to change the 2012 Supreme Court judgement that backed auction as the preferred mode of allocating telecom spectrum except for narrowly defined sectors such as satellite communication and defence where auction is not feasible.

Attacking the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, "The hypocrisy of the 'Modi Sarkar' and 'Bhrasht Janata Party' knows no bounds. During Dr Manmohan Singh's tenure, they cried to all who would listen that the administrative allocation of 2G spectrum was a 'scam'".

"Now, they are arguing the opposite - they have gone to the Supreme Court for permission to give away spectrum to whoever they want, without an auction," he alleged.

"Of course, this 'Modani Regime' has already been handing over public resources to the PM's crony capitalist friends - airports have been handed over to one company, coal mines have been given away in fraudulent auctions, and even satellite spectrum has been handed over in exchange for Rs 150 crore in electoral bonds. In total, they have already handed out Rs 4 lakh crore worth of public resources to their corporate donors," Ramesh further alleged.

He said that on 4 June, India's voters will show this party of "organised loot" the door.

The counting of votes of the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections, polling for which began on 19 April, will be taken up on 4 June.

The INDIA bloc government will launch a joint parliamentary committee on the "'Adani Mega Scam', and investigate these other corrupt practices, including the 'Pay PM scam' in which the PM amassed Rs 8,200 crore through his well-documented 'chaar raaste' of collecting funds", the Congress leader said.

He claimed that the BJP's four methods of collecting funds were "pre-paid bribes: 'Chanda Do, Dhanda Lo'; post-paid bribes: 'Theka Lo, Ghoos do'; post-raid bribes: 'Hafta Vasooli'; 'farzi companies'".

In its judgement delivered on 2 February 2012, the apex court had quashed 2G spectrum licences given to various firms during the tenure of A Raja as the telecom minister in January 2008.

On Monday, attorney general R Venkataramani, appearing for the Centre, mentioned an interim application before a bench of Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and justice J B Pardiwala.

While seeking urgent listing of the application, the top law officer told the bench that the plea seeks modification of the 2012 verdict as the Centre wanted to grant 2G spectrum licences in some cases.