A Raja looked as confident as ever as he walked in to the dinner – hosted by the publishers of his book ‘2G Saga Unfolds’ – in Delhi on 19 January. The DMK leader looked happy as he moved around the dinner party, interacting with the media and talking to friends and supporters. Raja, once tagged a corrupt politician behind the 2G spectrum scam – that was blamed for causing a loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the exchequer – is today looked at as the man who will reinvent the DMK. When asked whether the DMK would join hands with the BJP in the near future, Raja told The Quint: “This will be decided by the DMK party president and the top leaders”.
“As far as DMK is concerned we are a secular party. We have deep faith in the Constitution of India. We believe in the Preamble of the Constitution. ‘We, the People of India having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, Democratic, Republic and to secure to all its citizens,” he said.
No senior Congress or DMK leaders attended the dinner. When asked about the 2G verdict, DMK spokesperson A Saravanan told The Quint: “The 2G case verdict has come as a big relief to the party. A Raja was always confident that he will win the case. Because of this case we couldn’t raise corruption cases of other parties. We were always silenced by the opposition”.
‘Vinod Rai Should be Prosecuted’: A Raja
In his book, Raja accuses former CAG Vinod Rai of misleading the nation with the presumptive loss of Rs. 1.76 lakh crore. Everybody, including the Supreme Court bench, believed Rai’s "hypothesised presumptive loss figure of an actual scam of huge proportion," he writes. He said that he began writing his book when he was in jail and completed it in 2015.
Here is a excerpt from the book on Rai’s report on 2G case:
Mr Rai’s report is essentially a mixture of inappropriate legal interpretations, incongruous comparisons and flippant allegations, ignoring the Government’s standpoint and the concomitant laws.
Commenting on the loss figure of Rs 1.76 lakh crore, Raja writes that he doesn’t know how Rai arrived at this figure. “A constitutional body cannot function on assumption. When the DoT had given word by word reply to the CAG on 2G case, why didn’t Rai take the reply into consideration while preparing the final 2G audit report. Rai should be prosecuted, an inquiry should be initiated against him in this case," he writes.
Chidambaram Never Bothered to Ask Me What Happened: Raja
Raja writes that P Chidambaram’s role in the 2G case is a “puzzle”. Chidambaram was the Finance Minister when the 2G spectrum was allocated to private companies. Most of the file notings on 2G went to the Prime Minister’s Office via his ministry. Raja writes:
P Chidambaram’s stand on the 2G case is still a puzzle to me. He is an administrator of strong acumen, an able lawyer and a seasoned Parliamentarian. Yet, I was surprised to see him shying away from discussing the 2G situation with me and even avoiding speaking to me when we happened to pass each other in the airport.
When asked why he did not talk about any other Congress leader, Raja said: “It could be that I was expecting from him because he is a politician from Tamil Nadu. At least he could’ve asked me about the case. By his body language and the way he ignored me I could sense that something wrong is going to happen with me”.
Raja said that he had no qualms about the Congress.
He Knew His Innocence Would be Proven: Raja’s Wife
While Raja hobnobbed with the media and other guests, his wife, Parameswari, and their daughter, joined the other guests at the table.
When asked about the 2G case, she hesitated briefly, before saying: “When the trial was on, Raja told me that everything is going fine. He always looked confident about the case. We were confident that he will come out clean. I am very happy”.
“When Raja was in Tihar, all party people came to visit us. They all supported us. Mine and his family members were there with us. We had to manage everything,” she told The Quint. She also opened up about how the case affected their daughter.
“She is our only daughter. She was studying in school then. She was a bit affected psychologically but her friends were very supportive so she faced it all bravely”.
The worst may be over for Raja in the case, but the DMK leader told The Quint that he is prepared to face further trial if the CBI files an appeal in the Delhi High Court against the lower court’s judgment. It took seven years for the lower court to decide the 2G scam – that is blamed for the downfall of the UPA 2 government – and acquit all the accused. If the case now goes to the high court, it will kickstart the rigmarole all over again.
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