THREE TOPICS.

3 TOPICS.

Nowadays there are three topics in visual and print media namely the Lokpal v/s Jan Lokpal, 2G spectrum and cash stashed abroad. The later two are being watched by the SC. On the second the CBI is asked to submit regular reports on their investigation to another bench. There is a Special Investigation Team (SIT) set by one of the SC benches for the third.

The group of Anna Hazare calling themselves as Civil Society started an agitation when the authorities were moving slowly to track the cases of alleged corruption in high places. The CWG spending and money laundering etc. Then the sensational CAG report came that alleged of loss to exchequer amounting to Rs. 1.76 lakh crores in allotting the 2 G spectrum in 2008. This was supposed to have been arrived at by calculating the gain from auctioning spectrum 3 in 2010. The media was crying hoarse 24x7 and opposition parties paralyzed the parliament for a JPC that was set up on the last minute.

The so called Civil Society was able to gather the support of a substantial number of people through the results of the same 2G spectrum technology that spread explosively in the land. From the day one this society was behaving uncivil. They branded all the politicians and government servants from top to bottom as corrupt. The noise was such that every section of people echoed self righteous indignation. When Anna Hazare started fasting there was a rush in to support demanding a super man to impose accountability on all authorities including the judiciary and parliament beside all the executives down to the village level. It is called Jan Lokpal. It is a fact a kind of Lokpal Bill was pending for the consideration of the Parliament for more than three decades but never discussed. The present DPA coalition was also promised such an act. With this background one might conclude that the political class is least concerned about all-round corruption when they themselves are corrupt. The Government bent to the Hazare group in order to form a drafting panel for the Lokpal Bill. However; the panel was not able to come to a common understanding on details of the provisions. According to reports from the Govt. side the bill drafted by the group of ministers carried 34 of the 40 suggestion put forward by the group. The Civil Society started crying wolf that their main points of bringing the PM, all Govt. employees, members of parliament for their acts inside the parliament and the judiciary under Lokpal jurisdiction. Anna Hazare threatened to fast again since the proposed bill did not contain all that they wanted compulsorily. Throughout these times one or more of the members of the Civil Society went on to the media castigating everyone not in line with their thinking. The web is full of such fulmination from people whether they know or cared about the full implications of what they are saying. Some alleged that after attaining independence; the Mahatma (they call him Gandhi) bestowed the land to Nehru to perpetuate his family rule and loot the public. This hatred is in full view when we hear the BJP leadership dragging Sonia Gandhi for all the happenings. 

On the next day after the Govt. bill was placed before the Parliament the Hazare group burned the draft bill as a public exhibition of protest. A most unseemly event keeping in line with un-civil. In an earlier press conference Hazare proudly thumped his breast that he will surely resort to blackmail the Govt. in future if their draft is not adopted. All the civil society is gunning for the PM for all the ills in society. There are dissenting voices as well. One has to wait and see for the date August 16.

In this connection a report came from an unlikely source the head of Shiva Sena that is quoted here below

“Contest if you want to rule, Bal to Anna

Shiva Sena chief Bal Thackeray on Saturday(July 30) criticised social activist Anna Hazare and his supporters’ proposed fast against the Lokpal Bill. The Sena leader challenged Mr. Hazare and asked him to contest the election instead of going on a fast. “The question is how much the government will bend and against whom. The country cannot run by the hum kare so kayda (whatever I say is the law) attitude of people who do not contest elections and are not accountable for anything. If they are so worried about the Lokpal, Mr. Hazare and his supporters should contest and win elections to acquire the right to press their point of view. The country cannot be run by people on a fast,” Mr. Thackeray said in the editorial published in Shiva Sena mouthpiece Saamana. Further lashing out at Mr. Hazare, who is also called the country’s “second Gandhi”, Mr. Thackeray said, “Twenty five per cent population of this country is always forced to fast and nobody goes to them with a glass of orange juice. But there is a tamasha (of fasting) going on in the name of Lokpal.” On Mr. Hazare’s threat of going on an indefinite fast from August 16 in protest against keeping out the PM, the judiciary and the MPs’ conduct in Parliament from the bill, the Sena chief questioned the need of the Lokpal. He said that proper implementation of existing laws were enough to check corruption. “Lokpal is not at all needed if the four pillars of democracy, i.e. judiciary, parliament, administration and newspapers perform their duties strictly. As there cannot be a father of the nation, same way there cannot be a Lokpal. People of this country are capable of taking care of their welfare and it is because of them that this country has been running so far. If the Lokpal comes in to force, there will uncertainty on the role of judiciary, administration and Parliament. It is not correct to bring in the Lokpal bill only because Mr. Hazare is insisting on it,” Mr. Thackeray said. However, Mr. Thackeray admitted that the corruption is the “biggest enemy” of the nation and it needs to be eradicated.”

The 2G spectrum is becoming unfathomable as the figures sited by the CAG (Comptroller & Auditor General). Although several big corporate officials and politicians including the former Minister, A. Raja and others were under custody for months together without any charge sheet and no bail. It is under observation by a SC bench seeing some prima facie evidences against those accused. Now a lower CBI court has started hearing the case to issue charge sheets, the defenders vehemently denied the charges as having no evidential value. They also accused the CBI for selectively picking up people while a large number of other corporate also got allotted the same. There were several who questioned the indefinite detention of people charged. Kanimozhi an MP and daughter of DMK chief was picked for receiving a loan of Rs.200 crore to her family TV channel Kalainjar.  Even when the MP claimed that the loan is repaid to the corporate the CBI maintained that it was not a loan but a bribe from the corporate that got 2G spectrum allotted by A. Raja. The arithmetic of 2G spectrum is beyond an ordinary mind. The CAG said of a loss but did not specify who gained. The gainers should be all those who got the spectrum allotted. Then why did CBI select only a few? No answer. Some of the defense counsels pointed that the 2G spectrum resulted in an explosive expansion in the users of mobiles facilities provided by the allotters. Some reported that such a high use of mobiles might be achieved by about year 2018 or 2020. Now the both the prices of equipments and charges have come down to a level; even house maids and hawkers are using the mobiles nowadays.

The following is a website document I have spotted. It gives a better idea of what I have been thining.

Is Rs 1.76 lac crores a loss to the exchequer or a gift that has been passed on to the public?

A report submitted by the Comptroller and Auditor General based on the money collected from 3G licenses estimated that the loss to the exchequer due to under pricing of the 2G spectrum was Rs 176,379 crore (US$39.16 billion).
The word exchequer means financial resources or funds of an institution or an individual. It also refers to the treasury an organization or a country.

In the case of the 2G Spectrum Scam, CAG has claimed that Rs 1.76 lac crore is a loss to ‘us’ the people of India, because of the low prices at which the 2G Spectrum licenses were granted.

The impression in the minds of most of the Indians, and naturally so, since nobody is trying to clarify the same, is that this Rs 1.76 lac crores has been pocketed by the companies/politicians accused in the CBI chargesheets.

The fact of the matter is that these telecom companies got this concession from the government.

And what did these 2G spectrum license holders do, or at least the ones who rolled out their operations do: they simply passed it on to the ‘aam admi’.

How: in the form of extremely low & affordable mobile talk time pricing. So much so, that the poorest of the poor in our country now carries a mobile phone. Drivers, maid servants, even street vendors – they all carry a mobile phone.

For a country that stood at the bottom of the pyramid in terms of telecom penetration a decade ago, 2008 was a watershed when India's subscriber base topped 350 million users to make its network the second largest in the world after China, displacing the US. In Feb, 2011, India added a mind boggling 20.2 million new mobile subscribers.

The low pricing of 2g has made India the fastest growing mobile market in the world. Would all this have been possible if the pricing had been....say Rs 4 per minute?

Also, the increased database does not mean that these telecom companies have profited from the increasing subscriber base. Only the #1 company Airtel has a decent operating margin (OPM) of around 35%. The 2nd largest company Reliance has a low operating margin of less than 10%. Tata Tele and Idea have margins of 15%-20%. Uninor’s operating loss in the 2010 fourth quarter widened to 1,272 million NOK from 755 million NOK in the year-ago period.

So if these telecom companies have indeed made the killing, in the 2G Spectrum allocation, why is it not showing up? The fact is that they have passed on the gains to the consumers.

This represents the most efficient distribution of public resources. Just imagine if the government had gone about distributing this money out itself? At least 50% would have been lost in corruption!

And that brings me to the crux of my question: Is Rs 1.76 lac crores a loss to the exchequer or a gift that has                                                                                                                                      been passed on by the recipients of the 2G Spectrum licenses to the public?
I believe the answer to this question is ‘a 2G Spectrum Gift’!

Another mindboggling figure was going around saying that Indian has stashed in foreign banks mostly in Swiss amounting to 1.5 trillion dollars. The first indictment was on one Hasan Ali of Pune. When brought to court by the ED (Enforcement Directorate) the then Judge just dismissed the case as so much of paper with no prima facie evidence. Then came the SC intervention on the slow progress of the efforts to find the cash stashed abroad. Hasan Ali was detained and the Mumbai HC refused to give him bail saying that SIT presided by two former SC judges are directing the investigation. Hasan Ali offered to give any kind of authority to the ED to collect that entire amount that is said to be in his name in foreign banks. Later his defense counsel also said it before the judge hearing the case. There was no report as to the response of the ED to the offer. Instead he was taken in custody. Reports said that he was ‘grilled’ for hours and days. Hasan Ali’s cash in those banks were calculated to 8 billion dollars. Meanwhile a spokesman of the federation of Swiss banks made a statement the liabilities standing in the names of Indian citizens are about 2.5 billion dollars. No media gave any prominence to this. In fact the ED & IT officials went out to all countries like Switzerland, Mauritius, Singapore and many other places to get information. So many names are bandied by the media as reported by ED and IT. One may have to weight for long to find the results of the case.

K.N.Krishnan.