Press Briefing Friday, 23rd September 2011

Shri Manish Tewari addressed the media today.

Shri Manish Tewari said the BJP and some other sections of the opposition are again up to what they are best at - fish in untroubled waters and try to see a ghost and slay phantom when none exist. The BJP says that “do not hide behind the rule of subjudice as the matter pertains to public interest”. The reason why it is wise to defer to subjudice and to the wisdom of the Joint Parliamentary Committee which has representation from all sides of the political spectrum, is primarily because while telecom has been one of the success stories of Indian liberalization, it is perhaps the most litigated sector of the Indian economy. Each and every nuance of policy from 1994 to date has been litigated to the Supreme Court and back again. Without undermining the privilege of the Joint Parliamentary Committee, that I serve on, for every question that the BJP raises, we can raise too e.g. notwithstanding the very serious reservations that were expressed by a former Telecom Minister of the NDA Government. Why is it that migration was public? Why is it that the spirit of the National Telecom Policy-1999 was violated when the distinction between wire-line and wireless which was a fundamental part of that policy framework was erased and the universal access licence regime was ushered in? Why was it agreed to that the entry fee for new players into the USL regime would be the same fee which was paid by the port cellular operators? Why the spectrum was not auctioned separately when the port cellular operator licence went through a multi-stage bidding? Why is it that from 1995 till 2004, 4.4 x 4.4 Mhz of spectrum was bundled with the licence end additional spectrum beyond 4.4 Mhz was also not allocated through an auction process but through a subscriber linked criteria and I can raise hundred questions like this and on none of them or on none of these questions I am making value judgment one way or the other because it is not my remit sitting here to do that. That is the remit of the Joint Parliamentary Committee. That is the remit of the Courts of Law and that is why it is important not to jump to the gun and defer to the rule of subjudice to the wisdom of parliamentary committees so that there can be proper application of mind.

On the question of reaction of the Congress party on the fact that as to why there was a shift in policy, Shri Teweri said that is the reason we have JPC and the JPC is looking into the entire policy frame work from 1994 to 2009 and in the past 4/5 months we have been able to cover some ground. There is a lot more ground which needs to be covered and as I earlier said that it would be inappropriate and incorrect on my part to make a pre-mature value judgment one way or the other. Let us allow the JPC to play itself out and these are exactly the questions which the JPC in its wisdom will look at.

On the question of the reaction of the Congress party over the letter written by Shri Pranab Mukherjee to PMO regarding the role of Shri Chidambaram, Shri Tewari said as I have already said that all these issues are connected with the telecom policy. JPC comprising of members from all political parties was constituted to look into all such aspects. We should allow the JPC and the Courts of Law to reach at its logical conclusions.

Shri Tewari further said that in his suo-moto he has raised certain basic questions pertaining to their regime of the BJP, the individual or the party asking a question from the government or from the Congress Party should first of all search their own inner conscience and then raise finger at somebody else. The foundation of the policies formulated in the telecom sector after 2004 was laid during their regime. Therefore, under which circumstances those decisions were taken, this is exactly what the JPC is going into. Insofar as the Home Minister is concerned, my colleague Shri Abhishek Singhvi and even the Prime Minister have already articulated their view point. I do not think there is anything further we have to say on that.

On the question as to whether this is also an issue of one up-man-ship in the government, Shri Tewari said my colleagues have already spoken at length on this. There is absolutely no question of any rift in the government and those people who are trying to imagine a rift are searching for ghost where none exist and are attempting to slay the phantom which is completely mythical.

On the question of the contradictory attitude of the government over monitoring of the investigation by the Supreme Court, Shri Tewari said I do not want to comment on the statement made by the counsel of the government in the court because that has been the part of the proceedings of the court. We should respect the dignity of the courts.

On the question of the reaction of the Congress party over L.K. Advani’s Rath Yatra now starting from Bihar, Shri Tewari said he has already made it clear a few days back that neither this yatra is for corruption nor was the fast for ‘sadbhavana’. That is their internal matter. There is no need to go into the fact as to who is going to flag the yatra?

On the question of the reaction of the Congress party over PDP joining Omar Abdullah with regard to the death sentence to Afzal Guru, Shri Tewari said I think the entire issue of capital punishment is an extremely emotive and sensitive issue. There are various kinds of opinions which have been expressed around the country. There is also a reality that certain laws exist in our statute books and there are certain judgments which have been given by the Courts of Law and keeping all this in mind I think we need to tread with utmost caution and not give any statement which creates an impression as if we are trying to politicize something on which there are emotive and polarized opinions not only in India but across the world.

On the question of the reaction of the Congress party over the blog written by Shri Digvijay Singh in Times of India, Shri Tewari said I have not perused this article. Shri Tewari further said various people who write intelligently and authoritatively regularly on matters which are in the public sphere ranging from internal security to rural development. I don’t think it should be seen as an attempt to target a particular individual or to criticize a particular individual. It needs to be seen in a more holistic context that Indian democracy allows room for reasoned debate on policy issues.

On the question of the crash in the stock market yesterday, Shri Tewari said since I do not follow the market, my knowledge on the matter is limited.

On the question of the statistics issued by the Planning Commission with regard to the BPL, Shri Tewari said that Rural Development Ministry in consultation with the Planning Commission is trying to evolve a mechanism and when are seized of the matter, it would be appropriate to let them reach at some conclusion.
 

(Tom Vadakkan)
Secretary, AICC