'The PM is guilty of a conspiracy of silence'

He points out that the way the NDA allowed Uniform Access Licences and the way dual technology was allowed is questionable. In fact the NDA policy ended up in hoarding of spectrum by companies and that resulted in a huge loss.

Sibal is a propagandist. That is the role he is playing in this ministry. His only attempt is to confuse facts. I will disprove what he is saying.

The loss suffered due to 2G spectrum scam is not notional. The Comptroller and Auditor General has given four set of figures. One possible way of calculating loss in 2G is to compare it with income earned by the government through the 3G spectrum auction.

But, if you only take 2G alone, the loss is simple to calculate. First, you (Raja) didn't auction the spectrum. You allotted the spectrum in 2007 at 2001 prices. For all India licence, if all circles are put together, it (the telecom company) paid Rs 1,652 crore.

The very next day the company uses the 74 percent FDI provision and goes for a private auction. And overnight the company values the same spectrum at Rs 9,500 crore.

The loss per licence to the exchequer is close to Rs 8,000 crore. You had nine all India licences that year. All that you have to do is multiplication. I am sure Sibal is capable of doing that. So, the loss is not notional.

Two of the licence holders when they went into dilution of their equity valued it in this manner. When the spectrum was allotted at Rs 1,652 crore the market has valued it at Rs 9,500 crore on the same day!

During the NDA...

I will explain what happened during the (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee-led government. The Congress was completely illiterate in formulation of its telecom policy in 1993-94. They based it on the high-licence fee formula. The effect was that India's tele-density which was 0.8 percent was too small for telecommunication companies.

The operators were not philanthropists so they transferred the cost of high-fees of licence to consumers. As a result, per minute mobile rates were Rs 16. Therefore, due to the Congress policy, mobile telephony in India became a disaster.

Another illiterate thing that the pre-NDA government did was that they declared that each circle would have only two operators. They created a duopoly which went against the interests of consumers. Then several litigations were filed and the whole expansion of telecommunication sector was stalled.

What the NDA government did in 1999 was to shift to revenue-sharing basis instead of a high-fee licence regime.

Till 2010, due to this the government got much more than we could have ever got through the high-fee licence. So, history has proved that the Somnath Chatterjee document was bogus.

India's tele-density has increased from 0.8 per cent to around 65 per cent. In some urban cities it is crossing even 100 per cent. The cost of telecom services in India is the cheapest in the world because of the policies of the Vajpayee government.

The second initiative the Vajpayee government took was that it allowed WLL technology that can be used to shift from mobile to a fixed line. Some people used it without permission to make it unlimited mobility. We took action and penalised them.

One (Vajpayee's foster son-in-law) Ranjan Bhattacharya's conversation with (corporate lobbyist) Niira Radia is on tape, yet you still keep talking brazenly about the Radia tapes.

The corruption charges against the Karnataka chief minister are ignored by the BJP. In fact the BJP's defence is weak, but B S Yeddyurappa continues in his job.The Congress claims that they have taken many more steps against allegations of corruption. The BJP has not responded to that allegation.

Also, it's a fact that you were found wanting in action in Karnataka, but, still, you are picking up the corruption issue in New Delhi and you don't want Parliament to function.

You don't believe in the Supreme Court, you don't believe in the Central Bureau of investigation or in the Public Accounts Committee. What do you believe in, then?

Let me start with the last one. The health of all institutions that has culminated in the spectrum row along with all accompanying disclosures which have been made clearly establishes that it is not the Supreme Court's job to investigate what is happening. They have to decide judicial matters.

I have no faith in retired judges judging policy matters. My experience shows how the Banerjee commission report claimed that kar sevaks set fire to the train in Godhra. He has given a bad name to the institution of retired judges who are engaged in such work.

The CBI can investigate only the criminality part of the scam and nothing more. The PAC can debate only accounts and audits and profit and loss nothing more. The JPC is necessary for reasons I elaborated earlier.

If the government is so transparent they should listen to its parliamentarians. Parliament cannot be the mute spectator. It can't abdicate its responsibility. Now, if some people in their individual capacity are found gossiping with powerbrokers they do it at peril of their reputations. I have nothing to say about it.

You are talking about Ranjan Bhattacharya?

I am not getting into names. There are many people who have done that. We are fully conscious of what is going on in Karnataka. The Lokayukta is going into the matter. A commission of inquiry has been appointed which is transparent and public. The party itself is looking into it. The process is on.

Mind you, the discretionary land allotment for which he is being made accountable has been the past practice in Karnataka. The commission will look into what the present CM did and what the last few CMs did.

You came into the BJP from the Akhil Bharatiya Vidya Parishad which is the student outfit of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. All the accused in the Malegaon and Ajmer bomb blasts case are linked to the RSS. Do you feel embarrassed?

Let me be very clear: The RSS has made a categorical statement, repeatedly, that they are opposed to any such incident and any such act of violence. They (the accused)may be, in the past, attached to the RSS, but I am told that of their present functionaries only one man's name (Indresh Kumar) has cropped up and the RSS is looking into it.

Will you then, allow the Budget session to carry on?

I am not answering the hypothetical question. Yes, the Congress is very weak amongst the people today. They lost the Gujarat panchayat election, then they lost Bihar. Now they are likely to lose the Karnataka local election.