NEW DELHI, Nov 20, (AFP) - India's premier defended himself against accusations of inaction in a 40-billion-dollar telecoms scandal on Saturday as he promised anyone found guilty in the case would be punished.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is accused of failing to act on allegations that his telecoms minister acted improperly and he scandal has engulfed Singh, whose ruling Congress party's popularity partly rests on his “Mr Clean” image.
“There should be no doubt in anyone's mind that if any wrong thing has been done by anybody he or she or will be brought to book,” Singh told reporters in his first public declaration on the firestorm. The row ignited earlier in the week when India's chief auditing body announced the botched sale of 2G telecom licences in 2008 at a fraction of their value had cost the country up to 40 billion dollars.
Responding to the allegations, Singh's office submitted an affidavit in the nation's top court Saturday.
The Supreme Court had asked the premier to “explain every attention received and action taken” on a petition filed seeking prosecution of former telecommunications minister A. Raja, who stepped down last weekend. The Supreme Court had specifically sought a reply to accusations about Singh's “alleged inaction and silence for 16 months”.
The affidavit detailed how Singh's office dealt with each letter submitted by Subramaniam Swamy, an opposition lawmaker, demanding action against Raja.
The submission said Swamy's letters were forwarded to the justice department, which concluded that as the federal central bureau of investigation was already probing the case, any action against Raja would be premature.
In a sign the pressure was beginning to take its toll, the 78-year-old prime minister who has undergone numerous heart bypasses said he “felt like a high school student facing one test after the other”.
Singh appealed to the opposition, which has been blocking parliamentary business all week, to allow debate to resume.
“We are ready to discuss all issues in parliament -- we are not afraid of discussion,” Singh said.
“We need to effectively deal with the threat of corruption,” he added.
The Supreme Court had said Singh had failed to reply to a request to approve the prosecution of Raja, a low-caste politician from a regional party that is in the coalition government headed by Singh's Congress.
Senior ruling party politicians have given strong backing to the prime minister, whose cerebral style and reputation for probity normally puts him above the noisy quarrels and mud-slinging of Indian politics.
Singh and other Congress rulers are said by commentators to have been unwilling to risk the fall of the ruling coalition by upsetting Raja's DMK party.
Raja has said he is innocent and his decision to sell licences on a first-come-first-serve basis, even to companies with no telecom experience, was in line with the policy of his predecessors. |
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