SC relief for Chidu

Finance minister P Chidambaram emerged unblemished from the 2G spectrum scam as the Supreme Court rejected all allegations against him, putting an end to the protracted litigation to link him to the mega corruption saga of 2008.
The court found no merit in the purported documentary evidence marshalled by Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy, which was endorsed by activist advocate Prashant Bhushan, to seek a CBI probe into Chidambaram’s role in the 2G scam. The clean chit should cement the finance minister’s position as the government’s senior-most voice next to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The trial court, while refusing to entertain Swamy’s petition, had said that it did not find sufficient ground for initiating proceedings against Chidambaram. In contrast, the SC’s exoneration of the allegation of complicity in the scam was total. A bench of Justices G S Singhvi and K S Radhakrishnan rejected the petitions and applications to hand Chidambaram a four-in-one relief.
The court ruled that he had no role in the 2G spectrum allocation conspiracy, did not abuse his official position for financial gain for himself or for anyone including then telecom minister A Raja, did not play any role in under-pricing of spectrum, and did not hide facts to allow promoters of Swan and Unitech to dilute their equity.
The court also validated Chidambaram’s argument that he as finance minister in UPA-1 did not acquiesce in Raja’s successful resistance to inviting bids for spectrum. “On the other hand, Chidambaram was advocating the fact that most important method of allocating spectrum would be through auction,” the bench said.
It quoted from his January 15, 2008 note to the PM, where the finance minister had argued, “Spectrum is a scarce resource. The price of spectrum should be based on its scarcity value and efficiency of usage. The most transparent method for allocating spectrum would be through auction.”
Chidambaram has emerged a lynchpin of government’s responses to diverse challenges since Pranab Mukherjee’s departure for Rashtrapati Bhavan. Despite the case pending in court, government tasked him to head the EGoM on spectrum pricing.

The government rejected the Comptroller and Auditor General’s estimate of a presumptive loss of Rs 1.86 lakh crore on allocation of 57 coal blocks, with finance minister P Chidambaram saying there was no question of a loss when mining had started in only one block. “If coal is not mined, if it remains buried in mother earth, where is the loss? The loss can arise only once the coal is taken out of mother earth, mined and sold at unacceptable price or value. But if the coal is not mined, where is the loss,” Chidambaram said.