New Delhi: Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram was a relieved man on Friday as the Supreme Court dismissed the plea seeking a probe into his role in connection with the 2G spectrum allocation scam.
The plea, filed by Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy, was dismissed by the Supreme Court as it observed that "there is no prima facie material to show that P Chidambaram got pecuniary benefits".
While Chidambaram refrained from making any statement on the verdict of the apex court, he came out firing on all cylinders, hitting out at the Opposition for stalling Parliament for the fourth day in a row on Friday over the CAG report on coal blocks allocation.
Hours after the court verdict on the plea against Chidambaram, the Finance Minister, along with Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal and Law Minister Salman Khurshid, addressed a press conference where he accused the main Opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of being unwilling to let Parliament function and not being ready to discuss the CAG report on coal blocks allocation on the floor of the House.
Though he maintained that the briefing was not meant to confront the CAG on the issue, he asserted that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was ready with his reply on the CAG report, but it was because of the Opposition that the government was unable to speak about it in Parliament.
Slamming the Opposition, he said, "Our strategy in Parliament has been largely based around one word - patience. They should show the PM the courtesy of making a statement. I sincerely hope on Monday the Prime Minister will be allowed to make a statement."
Defending the Prime Minister, Chidambaram said he could say with authority that Singh was ready with a statement, asking the Opposition to have the courtesy to allow the Prime Minister to make a statement.
He further said that in fact the UPA tried to change the policy of allocation, which had been going on even before 2004, and it took a number of years. Chidambaram also said that there was no loss in the coal blocks allocation pointing, "If coal is not mined, where is the loss?"
This came hours after the Finance Minister got the clean chit in the 2G scam from the Supreme Court, whose bench comprising Justice GS Singhvi and Justice KS Radhakrishnan said, "There is no material evidence available to show that Chidambaram abused his position. No case is made out against P Chidambaram and the special leave petition filed against the judgement of the special CBI court is not liable to be entertained. Accordingly, the SLP is rejected."
Reacting to the decision of the apex court, while petitioner Subramanian Swamy called it a bad judgement, the BJP said that Chidambaram remained constitutionally and politically accountable as the nation suffered a huge loss in the spectrum pricing in 2008.
"The Supreme Court's judgement is based on something I did not argue," said Swamy.
He also warned that this decision will go against the government. "Don't think that there was any need for investigation. With the evidence available a chargesheet could have been filed," Swamy added.
Whereas, BJP chief spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "The loss has been caused to the government. Chidambaram was a part of the decision-making process. He is constitutionally accountable, remains politically accountable and that is what we are seeking inside Parliament and will continue to seek in JPC."
Highlighting the huge difference in the pricing of 2G Spectrum in 2008 and 2012, Prasad said this showed that there was a loss to the government.
He said Chidambaram was very much a part of the decision-making process in fixing the spectrum price along with A Raja "disregarding" the advice of Finance Ministry's officials for auctioning the Spectrum.
"It is well known that the base price of 2G in 2008 was determined at Rs 1,600-odd crores disregarding the advice of Finance Ministry officials to go for auction. In 2012, when the market conditions are adverse the base price of 2G Spectrum has been fixed at Rs 14,000 crore by a Group of Ministers headed by Chidambaram.
"Certainly I would like to know and highlight this for the country that has the country suffered a revenue loss or not in 2008, as said by Finance Ministry officials, that a proper bidding procedure should have been adopted. Therefore, the loss has been caused to the government," Prasad maintained.
This is the second time a judicial relief has come for Chidambaram after a Delhi court on February 4 this year had dismissed a plea of a co-accused in the 2G case.
Special CBI Judge OP Saini had held that Chidambaram had not indulged in any criminal conspiracy or derived any pecuniary advantage in the decisions taken with Raja.
Giving a clean chit to the Finance Minister in the allocation of 2G spectrum in 2008, Saini had said Chidambaram was party to only two decisions - keeping spectrum prices at 2001 level and dilution of equity by two companies - which "are not per se criminal".
Swamy had alleged that former telecom minister and main accused A Raja and Chidambaram had worked together in fixing 2G spectrum prices. Swamy had also claimed that the culpability of Chidambaram is similar to that of Raja.
A trial court had earlier rejected Swamy's plea saying there was no criminal intent behind Chidambaram's actions and he was not part of the criminal conspiracy.
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