The Indian government’s senior legal adviser yesterday defended Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the Supreme Court against allegations he had failed to act over a massive telecoms corruption scam.
Attorney General G.E. Vahanvati said Singh “had made all efforts to deal with the complaint” after the court asked the prime minister to explain delays in replying to an opposition request to prosecute the minister involved.
India’s chief auditing body last week declared that the sale of 2G telecoms licenses by former Indian telecoms minister A. Raja had lost the country up to US$40 billion.
Raja, who resigned on Nov. 14, is accused of selling the licenses in 2007 to favored bidders for a fraction of their true value.
Singh has not been accused of benefiting from any alleged graft but, under Indian law, the prime minister must approve criminal proceedings against any Cabinet member.
Vahanvati told the court that the complaint lodged by opposition MP Subramanian Swamy was “misconceived in law.”
Swamy wrote to Singh in 2008 demanding for Raja to be investigated and prosecuted, but he said he received a reply only in March this year saying no probe would be launched.
India’s main opposition party yesterday vowed to keep parliament deadlocked until the government agreed to a cross-party probe into the allegations.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other opposition groups have forced constant adjournments in parliament for two weeks as Singh has come under increasing pressure over his handling of the scandal.
“Two-thirds of the house members are demanding a joint parliamentary committee probe. Why is the government denying their demand? It is a democratic demand,” BJP spokesman Prakash Javdekar said. “The prime minister should resign if he believes in democracy.”
The controversy has presented Singh with one of the most serious challenges to his reputation for probity since he came in power in 2005.
He has denied failing to act and on Saturday said “there should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that if any wrong thing has been done by anybody, he or she or will be brought to book.”
Raja hails from a powerful southern regional party that is a pivotal member of the coalition government headed by Singh’s Congress party.
Congress officials have been accused of being unwilling to risk the coalition by upsetting Raja’s DMK party over the disputed telecoms sell-off.
The Supreme Court on Monday expressed its concern that media coverage of the scandal had implicated Singh directly.
“The prime minister’s role is being dragged [in] unnecessarily,” the judges said.
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