The 2G judgement is an indictment of NDA policies: Sibal

The Congress on Thursday welcomed the Supreme Court judgement cancelling 122 telecom licences, and justified its stand on the 2G spectrum row by saying, “uncertainty that shrouded that telecom sector has finally been lifted by the supreme court’s judgement today”. Addressing a press conference after the BJP attacked the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister in their role in 2G spectrum allocation, Telecom Minister, Kapil Sibal came out in defence of the government and said, “The Supreme Court judgement has indicted the policy, it hasn’t indicted the finance minister or the prime minister”. The government will abide by the judgement that spectrum should be auctioned which, he said, the ministry has done by delinking spectrum from the licence in 2011 after he took over. [caption id=“attachment_201588” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal on his way to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after the Supreme Court verdict. PTI”] [/caption] Sibal maintained that the government followed the policies framed by the NDA government, which the UPA succeeded, while defending his zero-loss theory. “If the policy was right there was no loss, if the policy was flawed then there’s been revenue loss since 2003,” he said, “The SC decision says that the policy was per-se discriminatory, which means the first-come first-serve policy was flawed. These policies were framed during the NDA regime.” Sibal challenged the BJP to come forward and accept its part in the present crisis saying, “UPA only followed the policy of the NDA government of FCFS, which has been declared discriminatory by the apex court. The BJP, therefore, must apologise to the nation from the nation for causing huge loss to the government. While blaming the NDA for the 2003 policy which the UPA implemented, he sought to shift blame on irregularities in the manner in which it was implemented on the then telecom minister A Raja. “The Supreme Court has clearly said that the then minister (Raja) did not heed to the good advise of both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Finance Ministry,” Sibal said. “The BJP-NDA should apologize for their rhetoric against Chidambaram even after SC’s verdict,” he said. He added, “The judgement will ensure that no policy aberration happens in the future.”