New York: The former Telecom Minister, A. Raja, in jail in connection with the 2G spectrum allocation scam, has earned the dubious distinction of figuring in the list of Time magazine's “an ignominious club of privileged leaders who stepped too far.”
The 2G scam is ranked No 2 in the list of scandals and scams in the all-time Top 10 “Abuses of Power,” only next to ex-American President Richard Nixon's “Plumbers,” a secret unit tasked with digging up dirt on Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg.
Mr. Raja has beaten some tough contenders to be ranked second and be ahead of Libyan strongman Muammar Qadhafi, North Korean autocratic leader Kim Jong-II and skirt-chasing Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi.
The Time write-up on the telecom scandal says, “In recent months, India's ruling coalition government has been rocked by an epic corruption scandal that has challenged its once unbreakable grip on power.”
The Time report said that following the 2008 elections, the Telecommunications Ministry was awarded to Mr. Andimithu Raja, “a relatively green lawmaker from a regional party who won his post as a result of India's usual parliamentary political horse-trading.
The magazine further said: “But, according to allegations that led to Mr. Raja resigning late last year, he presided over the under-pricing of bandwidth to mobile companies — apparently in return for bribes — which some estimate may have cost the Indian government around $7 billion.
“That figure makes it hands down the largest episode of graft in Indian history, and played a part in the withering defeats Mr. Raja's party sustained in local elections in early May. — PTI
The 2G scam is ranked No 2 in the list of scandals and scams in the all-time Top 10 “Abuses of Power,” only next to ex-American President Richard Nixon's “Plumbers,” a secret unit tasked with digging up dirt on Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg.
Mr. Raja has beaten some tough contenders to be ranked second and be ahead of Libyan strongman Muammar Qadhafi, North Korean autocratic leader Kim Jong-II and skirt-chasing Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi.
The Time write-up on the telecom scandal says, “In recent months, India's ruling coalition government has been rocked by an epic corruption scandal that has challenged its once unbreakable grip on power.”
The Time report said that following the 2008 elections, the Telecommunications Ministry was awarded to Mr. Andimithu Raja, “a relatively green lawmaker from a regional party who won his post as a result of India's usual parliamentary political horse-trading.
The magazine further said: “But, according to allegations that led to Mr. Raja resigning late last year, he presided over the under-pricing of bandwidth to mobile companies — apparently in return for bribes — which some estimate may have cost the Indian government around $7 billion.
“That figure makes it hands down the largest episode of graft in Indian history, and played a part in the withering defeats Mr. Raja's party sustained in local elections in early May. — PTI
No comments:
Post a Comment