By IANS,
New Delhi : Home Minister P. Chidambaram Friday said Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairperson Murli Manohar Joshi’s draft report on the 2G spectrum allocation was a “gross distortion” of facts about his suggestions to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the telecom licence issue.
Chidambaram in a statement said his Jan 15, 2008, note to Manmohan Singh was not about the entry fee for 2G spectrum allocation “but only usage charges (that) even a person with average intelligence would have noticed”.
“Joshi’s draft report was a gross distortion of the note and mischievously commented I had pleaded with the prime minister to treat the matter as closed,” Chidambaram said.
He claimed “my note dealt with spectrum usage charges alone and suggested three measures for raising revenues, including a measure to raise additional revenues from licencees who held spectrum over and above the start-up spectrum by charging, prospectively the price discovered in the auction”.
The PAC draft report, which was leaked to the media, on the alleged financial irregularities in the 2G spectrum allocation, criticised Chidambaram who was then finance minister, by saying the committee was “shocked and dismayed” to note that in his note he acknowledged that spectrum price should be based on its scarcity value and efficiency of usage.
But Chidambaram later suggested that the matter be closed, according to the report.
Chidambaram refuted the charge Friday.
“The draft report did not say what the ‘matter’ was. The draft report also deliberately and mischievously omitted the suggestion regarding charging the licensees prospectively. I am constrained to observe once again that even a person with average intelligence would have noticed that the note did not deal with entry fee at all. In fact, it did say so.”
At a press conference, asked if he was referring to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Joshi as a person with below average intelligence, Chidambaram smilingly replied: “I did not say that. I am talking about persons like me with average intelligence will know. I was referring to myself.”
The home minister also refused to respond to BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, who accused him of “direct complicity” in the 2G scam. “Why should I respond?” he said.