:: Paranjoy Guha Thakurta

The adventures of Messrs Baalu & Raja

By Paranjoy Guha Thakurta

May 24 : Two prominent politicians belonging to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) are in the news for the wrong reasons.

They are Thalikkottai Rajuthevar Baalu, former Union minister for shipping, road transport and highways, who has been elected member of the Lok Sabha on five occasions, and Andimuthu Raja, a Scheduled Caste member of Parliament from the Niligiris who was minister for communications and information technology.

Between May 2004 and May 2007, Mr Raja was in charge of the ministry of environment and forests. It has been disclosed in a series of well-documented newspaper articles (which have not been denied) that during this period the minister’s relatives and close associates acquired control over a number of real estate firms.

After Mr Raja replaced his colleague from the DMK, Dayanidhi Maran, as communications minister, a different clutch of real estate companies entered the telecommunications business and was thereafter awarded lucrative licences.

Under Mr Raja’s stewardship, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) allotted second-generation electromagnetic spectrum — a scarce, finite, and hence extremely precious national resource — to mobile telephone operators at throwaway prices that caused a huge loss to the government. A lawyer by profession, former minister A. Raja steadfastly refused to accept suggestions made by a large number of telecom experts as well as bureaucrats (including some in his own ministry) that an open system of public auction of spectrum would have been the most transparent and legally sustainable manner of allocating spectrum. He instead opted for an opaque and complex "first come first served" system of granting licences and allotting spectrum that was considered inefficient and unfair.

The entire business acquired an added dimension when promoters of three Indian companies holding telecom licences offloaded a hefty part of their equity stakes for lucrative prices: Swan Telecom sold 45 per cent of its shares to Etisalat (of the United Arab Emirates) for Rs 4,100 crores; Unitech Wireless offloaded 60 per cent of its stake to Telenor (of Norway) for Rs 6,200 crores; and Tata Teleservices sold 26 per cent of its shares to NTT DoCoMo of Japan for Rs 13,230 crores.

These transactions confirmed apprehensions that all-India mobile telephony licences that had been sold by DoT for Rs 1,651 crores (based on prices prevailing in 2001) in January 2008 actually had a market value that was six to seven times higher, or over Rs 10,000 crores each. The total loss to the national exchequer is estimated at more than Rs 50,000 crores, making this arguably the biggest financial scandal in the history of independent India.

What was the reaction of Mr Raja’s mentor, Tamil Nadu chief minister Muthuvel Karunanidhi? This is what he said: "…leaders of certain political parties can’t tolerate the rise of a humble dalit".

As far as Mr Baalu is concerned, during his tenure as surface transport minister, no less than five individuals graced the position of chairman of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in less than three years. The Delhi high court criticised the minister for "day-to-day interference" in the affairs of the NHAI. Between May 2004 and October 2008, not a single one of the 47 projects in the second phase of the North-South-East-West national highways programme was completed.

According to replies given in Parliament by Mr Baalu’s own former deputy, the then minister of state K.H. Muniyappa, Tamil Nadu was the beneficiary of 30 road projects worth Rs 10,000 crores during his tenure as minister — this amount comprised one-fifth of the total money spent on developing national highways all over India. Do you have any doubts about why voters in Sriperumbudur have elected Mr Baalu?

Between November 2007 and February 2008, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) forwarded no less than eight letters requesting the ministry of petroleum and natural gas to expedite the allocation of natural gas by a PSU at concessional rates to two firms controlled by Mr Baalu’s family members. The former minister responded to his critics and said: "What’s wrong with it? I just put in a word… after the request of shareholders and employees of two loss-making units…"

What was the reaction of the then minister for petroleum and natural gas Murli Deora? He said: "Every day we get requests from people… If somebody tells me that this is a question of 2,000 people losing their jobs, I will call people, I will ask my officers to help. We are here to help, not harass people... There is no nepotism involved".

Now that we know why Thiru Baalu and Thiru Raja are in the limelight, we can also recount without batting an eyelid the famous saying of sages of yore: "We are like this only".

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta is an educator and commentator based in New Delhi