2 G scam is amongst one of the biggest scams in Indian
history which was also ranked as second in the list of “top 10 abuse of power”,
by Times magazine in 2011. The scam caused a loss of more than 1.75 lakhs crore
to Indian Government. Here, we will explain you how was the scam of this size
happened.
This scam is linked to telecom sector and for understanding
the scam, it is necessary to understand few techniques and terms used in this
sector.
What is spectrum and what is its use in
telecom?
All types of telecommunication system requires certain
amount of electromagnetic bandwidth to operate. Bandwidth is the range of
frequencies that make up a signal that transmits communication such as voice,
picture, data etc. These electromagnetic bandwidths are also called as
Spectrum. Each geographical region in the world has electromagnetic bandwidths
available as a natural resource, and they are limited in number. Since these
spectrum are the basic resource upon which entire telecom system works,
acquiring of sufficient units of spectrum is a necessity for telecom companies
to provide its services.
What is 2G? 2G,
which basically stands for 2nd generation telecommunication network
uses different bandwidth of spectrum, which enable the system to provide
additional communication medium such as SMS and quality of communication
compared to 1G earlier. Thus for each type of telecommunication service
separate band of electromagnetic signals are required.
How is spectrum
allocated and regulated in India? Since spectrum is a natural resource,
like many other country, in India, all spectrum is owned by the Government.
Government then decide to provide these spectrum to relevant companies who can
use it for provide telecom facilities to its population.
Department of Telecommunications (DoT) in India usually
conducts auctions of spectrum in India. Those buying the spectrum are given
license for using it for telecommunication services. These licenses are called
Unified Access Services (UAS) licenses and company getting these license can
use spectrum to provide all kinds of telecommunication services such as phone
calls, sms, TV, internet etc.
India is divided into 23 service areas for providing UAS. A
company obtaining license for UAS in any area is free to provide services
within their area only.
After understanding the relevant basics of telecommunication
system in India, let us now understand what happened in 2G scam.
What happened in 2G
scam?
The basic scam was that, in year 2007, department of Telecom
under Government of India, allocated the 2G spectrum to companies at much lower
prices which resulted in an estimated loss of 1.76 lakhs crore to Indian
Government.
In 2007 122 new 2G – UAS licenses were issued to telecom
companies at the price that was fixed in year 2001. The criteria used were
first come first serve. Reasons given by the department was that giving
spectrum at cheaper price would result in cheaper mobile services for the
population. Also, cheaper spectrum coupled with first come first serve will
enable new and upcoming companies to compete in this market, which eventually
will drive up the quality and reduce the price.
However, several companies that acquired spectrum at lower
prices used it to raise the price of their shares multiple times and then sold
their shares to bigger players in telecom. Thus indirectly, the spectrum was
obtained by bigger companies at much higher price (in ways of shares), than was
initially allocated by DoT. This defeated both the purposes of DoT, i.e.
cheaper mobile services to population and increasing competition in telecom
market.
Who benefitted? From
above brief of scam it is obvious that loss was incurred by government
(indirectly by people of India), as, if they had allocated the spectrum at
higher prices, they could have made much more money. But instead, middle
companies who acquired spectrum and then sold their shares to bigger companies
made all the money from spectrum allocation.
But there are lots of individuals also who are alleged to
have made money in this case by means of bribe. Investigation found several
flaws in the entire process of spectrum allocation and it indicates that people
in power deliberately did this to benefit some companies and they in-turn may
have received kickbacks. Most important people who were alleged are
1.
A. Raja:
He was union minister for communication and information technology from 2007 to
2009. He has been alleged to have taken Rs. 3000 crore as bribe to facilitate
this scandal. He chose to ignore several recommendations from TRAI, Finance
ministry, law ministry and even from prime minister and instead of auctioning,
ordered for allocation of 2G spectrum at 2001 price. He also moved the deadline
for application by companies from 1 October, 2007 to 25 September, 2007,
without putting a transparent notice so that some selected companies only can
be allocated the spectrum.
2.
Shahid
Balwa: He through his company called SWAN, which has no experience in
telecom, obtained 2G spectrum license. It later sold its shares at much higher
rates to a middle east company Etisalat.
3.
Kanimozhi:
She is an MP of DMK and daughter of Karunnanidhi. She worked with A. Raja to
get Shahid Balwa (Promoter of Swan telecom) to invest Rs. 200 crore in her TV
channel called “Kalaignagar TV”. Balwa had done this as he has received favour
from A. Raja in obtaining the spectrum
4.
Neera
Radia: There are suspicions that Neera Radia mediated between corporate
world and Congress party to put A.Raja as minister for telecom. The money was
paid by companies to Neera Radia for doing this job, who efficiently got this
done. A.Raja was then supposed to return the favour to these companies who
helped him in getting this post.
Besides these several bureaucrats and executives were also
involved in this scandal.
What is the current
status of the case?
License of all companies who were allocated 2G spectrum has
been cancelled by supreme court. A.Raja was arrested in February 2011 but
obtained bail in May, 2012. After that his trial is under way in special CBI
court. Kanimozhi was also arrested and later obtained bail. Her case is also
underway. Neera Radia was not arrested but was only questioned. Most of the
other executives also who were arrested are on bail.