Former telecom minister Arun Shourie on Friday appeared before the CBI in connection with the 2G case and said the real issue involved kickbacks and not the policy pursued for spectrum allocation.

Before he went into the CBI headquarters where he was called for questioning, he said the government was trying to divert the attention from "real issues" by coming up with "rubbish arguments".

Shourie, who was telecom minister in the Vajpayee government, said he will assist the CBI in whatever way possible and will also submit a 50-page document prepared by him giving details about broad questions like on first-come- first-serve basis policy that are appearing in the media.

"It is a very interesting point (fist-come-first-serve-basis). It is a red herring shown to the public. The issue is that (former telecom minister) A Raja made money irrespective of whether it was a first-come-first- serve policy or not. That is why he was shown the door. He was put in jail.

"The issue is money being made in allocation of spectrum. Even more important was his (Raja's) supervisors did not take action. They were sleeping. This is the issue."

Shourie said to "divert the attention from this issue, government has come out with first-come-first-serve-basis argument."

Shourie has appeared before the CBI for questioning in connection with the agency's probe into possible criminal aspects in the telecom policy since 2001.

Shourie had held the telecom portfolio between January 2003 and May 2004 in the NDA regime.

According to the CBI, nearly 50 licences were given out then on a first-come-first-serve basis and Bharti, Vodafone and Idea were among the beneficiaries of the policy.

Shourie said, "I was given the ministry in 2003. In 2001 guidelines, policy of first-come-first-serve basis was very clear. The arguments of this government are all rubbish."

The former telecom minister also lambasted Shivraj Patil committee's report, saying these "signatures for hire" (referring to Patil) did not see the documents themselves.

He said the government has succeeded in diverting the attention from the real issue.

"While media is busy covering visits of industrialists and corporates to the CBI, the prime minister's name is out, (DMK leader) M Karunanidhi's name is out. Names of other Congress members are out," he said.

Shourie, however, praised the CBI saying it was a competent organisation if given a free hand.

He said as per his information, the CBI has spoken to the whistleblower who had given the inputs about the scam.

Earlier Story

Dated : February 11

PM ignored my warnings on Raja's 2G loot: Arun Shourie

Former telecom minister Arun Shourie told the Indian Express that he had apprised prime minister Manmohan Singh of the nature and scale of the 2G scam after he realised its enormity and alerted the then CBI director as well.

Shourie said that he had even introduced the probe agency to a key informant, who knew specific details of bribery in the scam.

He said that this happened towards the middle and end of 2009.

According to the key opposition figure, the prime minister and finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had summoned the then Trai chief Nripendra Mishra who had told them that A Raja (then telecom minister) was wrong in saying that he had gone by the telecom regulatory body's recommendations.

Shourie said that he had been approached by an informant who armed him with details of each graft, alongwith the names of companies who had received undue munificence from the ministry.

He then met the PM with details sometime in August-September 2009 and showed him the details in the Rajya Sabha corridor, requesting a meeting with the latter's principal secretary T K A Nair. When there was no response from the PMO, he met the then CBI director Ashwini Kumar.

He was informed by the agency that it could not act against Raja until it had clearance from the PMO.

Related report:

Cong rubbishes Shourie's claims, questions credibility

Congress on Friday denied that there had been any communication from the former telecom minister Arun Shourie to either the prime minister or the PMO on the 2G scam.

"There was absolutley no kind of communication to the prime minister or his office (from Arun Shourie). It is a travesty of truth. This is a conscious attempt to mislead or misinform," Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi told the media here.

Singhvi said that Shourie's statements raise serious questions about his party's motives in the light of the recent report by the justice Shivraj Patil committee, which cleared Raja of mopst charges. Shourie had earlier accused telecom minister Kapil Sibal of trying to get his predecessor A Raja off the hook in the 2G scam and had said that the Patil committee report was light on Raja.

"Why did he go public only now? Why did he have to wait until the Patil committee report came out. This is merely an attempt to attack the PM," Singhvi said.