Manmohan Singh should rethink, testify before JPC

The Prime Minister had turned down BJP leader Yashwant Sinha's demand that he testify before the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the allotment of 2G licences by former telecom minister Andimuthu Raja. This, in our opinion, is a tactical mistake. It is true, as the PM said, that the JPC has all the documents at its disposal and can reach a conclusion from them. But this would preclude using the forum of the JPC to educate the public on the pros and cons in telecom policy. The PM could draw on the recent experience of auctioning spectrum in India, of 4G spectrum auctions fetching only a fraction of the disastrously high proceeds 3G auctions had obtained at the turn of the century in a country like Britain, of the Czech authorities calling off auctions because the bids went too high, endangering popular access to inexpensive wireless broadband.

Dr Manmohan Singh and finance minister P Chidambaram could educate MPs and, through them, the public at large, on the essential validity of the policy followed in 2007. This would serve to focus attention on mischief in the implementation of policy, and fixing responsibility. Earlier, when the Public Accounts Committee was examining the 2G report of the Comptroller and Auditor General ( CAG), Singh had himself volunteered to appear before the PAC to clarify matters.

The finance minister, an expert lawyer, is also well placed to argue the government's position on 2G. The JPC's current practice of conducting a probe without giving a hearing to the principal players at the time of the allotment of spectrum is ridiculous. It would help everyone if Raja, Chidambaram and Singh appeared before the committee to clear the air on a controversy that paralysed governance, led to wild allegations of graft and a notional loss figure of mythical proportions.