New Delhi: BJP on Wednesday claimed it had "come
to know" that the then Finance Minister P Chidambaram had
recommended that the government should go ahead with the
first-come-first-serve basis in 2G spectrum allocation, a
decision which is alleged to have led to huge losses.
"We have come to know- and the media should also
investigate further- that Chidambaram had said the government
should go ahead with the first-come-first-serve proposal for
2G spectrum allocation," BJP General Secretary and
spokesperson Jagat Prakash Nadda said.
Nadda claimed that Chidambaram had also said later that
the matter (of anomalies in 2G allocation) should be closed.
BJP and Congress have sparred over whether this policy
should have been adopted for 2G allocation.
While the UPA maintained that first-come-first-serve was
first used by the erstwhile BJP-led NDA government and the
Manmohan Singh regime had only gone ahead with the policy.
On this basis, Sibal had argued that there was "zero
loss" as all allegations were being made on presumptions of
what profits could have accrued had the government gone for an
open auction.
However, BJP countered this, saying the policy was
adopted in 2001-02 when there were very few players,
tele-density was too less and the spectrum was not such a
valuable commodity. But in 2008, 2G spectrum was highly
valuable and UPA should have gone for an auction.
PTI
