India's telecoms minister resigns over corruption charges - Summary

Mon, 15 Nov 2010

New Delhi- India's telecommunications minister resigned following allegations of corruption in the sale of licenses to domestic mobile phone operators, officials said Monday.

Andimuthu Raja, from the Dravida Munnetra Kazagham (DMK) party, a key ally of the federal United Progressive Alliance government, resigned late Sunday.

"In order to avoid embarrassment to the government and maintain peace and harmony in the parliament, my leader (DMK chief M Karunanidhi) has advised me to resign," he said.

"I will prove my innocence, I did everything in accordance with the law," the 47-year-old politician said.

The resignation followed days of opposition protests and a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General that said Raja had allotted second-generation spectrum licenses to nine domestic operators at below-market prices in 2008.

Opposition parties said that resulted in a loss of nearly 40 billion dollars to the treasury.

Jayanthi Natarajan, spokeswoman of the Congress Party that leads the ruling coalition, said Monday that Raja's resignation would not affect the party's "strong" alliance with the DMK.

Later on Monday, opposition parties stalled proceedings in the Parliament repeatedly, forcing its adjournment until Tuesday.

Opposition members shouted slogans against the government and demanded a joint parliamentary inquiry.

The Congress Party rejected the demand and said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would take charge of the telecom ministry until a new appointment was made.

Federal Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram explained that a joint parliamentary probe was not needed because the auditor's report would be studied by the Public Accounts Committee headed by a leader of the opposition.

Communist leader Sitaram Yechury said a special parliamentary panel probe was necessary to "not only investigate the scam but set up rules and benchmarks for the future," as a committee had done after a stock-market scam in 1992.

The nation's telecoms sector has experienced robust growth, with total connections estimated at over 650 million.

India overtook the US in 2008 to become the second-largest mobile telecom market after China, which has nearly 800 million connections.

The Congress Party, in power since 2004, faces a string of corruption scandals.

Last week, Ashok Chavan, the chief minister of the western state of Maharashtra, resigned over his alleged role in a scam involving homes for war widows.

Indian Commonwealth Games organizer Suresh Kalmadi also quit his party post over corruption allegations from the October event.

Raja was the second federal minister to resign this year.

In April, junior foreign minister Shashi Tharoor resigned over charges of corruption in India's lucrative premier cricket league.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/353569,corruption-charges-summary.html.