BJP holds PM guilty of silence, inaction in 2G scam

Mumbai, Feb 13 (PTI) Sharpening its attack on PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh in the 2G Spectrum scam, BJP todaycharged him with conspiracy of silence, culpable inaction andgross indifference.

At a press conference here, BJP spokesman Ravi ShankarPrasad accused the Prime Minister of being a silent spectatorwhen former Telecom Minister A Raja flouted his directives forensuring fairness and transparency in the allocation ofspectrum.

He said the Prime Minister was "guilty" of conspiracy ofsilence, culpable inaction and gross indifference adding thatspectrum pricing was kept out of the Group of Ministers (GoM)purview and left to Raja''s discretion.

Referring to the controversy over the S-Band spectrumgiven to Devas, Prasad said it is the second scam under aclean Prime Minister and wondered how no one bothered toquestion him.

"S-Band spectrum was given only to Devas Multimediawithout competitive bidding. The Space Ministry comes directlyunder the Prime Minister. How is it that no one bothers to askthe PM. This is the second scam under a clean Prime Minister,"he said.

Prasad demanded an explanation from the Prime Ministerover the Antrix-Devas deal as to why the government continuedtalks with Devas till a few weeks ago if the deal was scrappedin July 2010.

He said Devas CEO, Ramachandran Vishwanathan, had saidthe company was in talks with officials in the PMO till aslate as a few weeks ago. .