SPECTRUM POLITICS UNVEILING THE DEFENCE

In November 2010, a leaked CAG
report on the 2G spectrum policy suggested that Rs. 1.76 lakh crores were
lost (described as ‘presumptive loss’) to the government exchequer because of
myopic, even legally questionable policies of the then UPA government in
handing out valuable spectrum resource in 2007–08 at the price of 2001. Soon,
the 2G episode was proclaimed to be the ‘Mother of all Scams’. Seven years
later, in December 2017, a special CBI court pronounced the verdict in this
case in just a single line: ‘The prosecution has miserably failed to prove
its case and all accused are acquitted.’Spectrum Politics: Unveiling the
Defense is a maiden attempt in the direction of removing avoidable confusion
being piled up in the minds of the people of India. The book establishes the
hard facts of the 2G case from the origins of spectrum policy under the
BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government from 1998 to 2004 to
the findings of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) set up to investigate
the matter and enlightens readers that this case was far from a scandal
rather a corporate battle to scuttle the allocation of spectrum licenses.Rich
in its detail and insight, Salman Khurshid channels his remarkable expertise
in policy matters to highlight how deliberate distortion caused endless
anguish to individuals, the Congress and indeed the country. Every citizen
concerned about our polity should read and reflect upon the lucid and
incisive narrative of this book, which is, in a sense, about the past,
present and equally about the future.