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CBI questions Shourie in 2G scam
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 25
Former Telecom Minister Arun Shourie was today questioned for over three hours by the CBI in connection with the probe into the 2G scam. He accused the government of diverting people’s attention from the issue of corruption by throwing up “red-herring” of first-come-first-serve policy, which is being blamed by some quarters as the reason for the scam.

Hinting that the rot ran deeper and A Raja, now in jail, could not be the kingpin, he told mediapersons that Raja should turn approver and spill the beans on the roles of other accused. First-come-first-serve policy gave a level-playing field to different operators, he said.

He told the CBI that his successor Dayanidhi Maran tweaked the TRAI guidelines in 2005 to remove the cap on the number of operators in a circle that opened the floodgates as far as corruption was concerned. Maran did it to benefit a few private companies, he alleged.

The then telecom secretary Vinod Vaish was question along with Shourie. As he arrived to face the CBI questions, a relaxed Shourie told mediapersons that nobody was now talking about the role of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi as public attention had been shifted to the roles of corporate firms and bureaucrats.