Spectrum sale deliberately manipulated: Murli Manohar Joshi

KOLKATA: Senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi today alleged there was a possibility that the recent flopped spectrum sale was "deliberately manipulated" to show that the CAG's calculation of presumptive loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the exchequer was erroneous.

"There is a possibility that this auction has been deliberately manipulated," Joshi told a press conference here.

Expressing surprise at "important telecom players not participating", the former BJP president demanded an investigation into the entire process of bidding.

"The central government is now attacking the CAG, the supreme auditor of the country, and their main argument is regarding its report on 2G spectrum which was also discussed by the Public Accounts Committee," he said.

The government, which had set a reserve price of Rs 14,000 crore for pan-India spectrum on the basis of CAG's assumption of Rs 1.76 lakh crore loss caused to the exchequer in the previous sale in 2008, managed a meagre Rs 9,407.64 crore in the auction held last week.

"Now that the auction did not give expected results, the government is claiming the CAG was wrong," the former BJP president said.

Saying that "no CAG can be criticised," the senior BJP leader pointed out, "If you find that the CAG is doing something mala fide, then impeach him. You cannot criticise the CAG in public or in Parliament, you can only impeach."

"I want to challenge the government to impeach the CAG if it has anything against him," he said.

"All ministers who criticised the CAG owe an apology," Joshi asserted.