Indian Express: Saturday, September, 03, 2011.
New Delhi : The BJP has been attacking the government on the absence of formal recorded “minutes” of a meeting P Chidambaram had in 2008 as finance minister with then telecom minister A Raja on 2G spectrum allocation. It has called it a “serious lapse”. But in what could puncture the BJP attack, information obtained through the RTI Act now reveals that ‘minutes’ of meetings of the finance minister with his cabinet colleagues were not maintained during the NDA regime either.
The main opposition party trained its guns on the government on this issue for the first time last month after officials of the Department of Economic Affairs told the joint parliamentary committee that a meeting between Chidambaram and Raja had taken place on May 29, 2008, and while there were no minutes of this meeting, an “agreed position” was reported to the prime minister later.
The Financial Express had sought information from the finance ministry on the following points under RTI: Between 1998 and 2004, how many times did finance ministers meet other ministers on a one-to-one basis; and were minutes of those meetings recorded? The reply was: “Such information is neither compiled nor available in this department”.
Ever since the Department of Economic Affairs deposition before the JPC, the BJP has been alleging that during his May 29, 2008, meeting with Raja, an attempt was made by Chidambaram to “gloss over the divergent opinions, cover up disregard of rules, regulations and procedures” on the issue of allocation of 2G spectrum licences. It has even demanded a “focused inquiry” into the absence of the minutes and argued that nothing short of an explanation from the prime minister can “fill this void in documentary evidence”.
However, information obtained through RTI shows that minutes of meetings finance ministers had with their Cabinet colleagues were not kept even during the NDA time.
When contacted, BJP chief spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad, who interestingly spoke yesterday again at a media briefing about the absence of records, made light of the reply, saying “there was no need for maintaining records of casual meetings but the meeting on 2G spectrum allocation was not just a routine one”.
“Officials were being overruled and a decision was taken against preferring market mechanism. It was not an ordinary meeting. I know finance ministers routinely meet other ministers on a whole range of issues. From planning to the larger issue of spending and allocations. But a meeting on spectrum pricing and licence allocation was not a routine meeting,” he said.
Prasad pointed out that there was a Cabinet decision during the NDA regime in 2003 stipulating that spectrum allocation and its pricing hence forth shall be done by the Telecom Ministry in consultation with the Finance Ministry. “Spectrum is an important thing and there was a Cabinet decision spelling out the Finance Ministry’s role clearly. That is the catchword. The obligation was imposed by the highest body the Cabinet,” he said.
Government sources countered Prasad’s claim by arguing that the finance minister during the NDA regime also took decisions relating to the 2G spectrum allocation. However, no minutes were kept of Jaswant Singh’s meetings with other relevant ministers, even though the CBI yesterday told court it will speak to the ex-finance minister on decisions regarding the spectrum.
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