By: Ravi Sinha
Track2Realty Exclusive
The chargesheet has been filed by the CBI against former telecom minister A Raja in the 2G spectrum scam with the leading real estate company Unitech and two others being a party to the criminal conspiracy, forgery, cheating and corruption. The question is not just about the manipulation of rules by Raja to make ineligible realty companies causing a loss of Rs.30,984 crore to the state exchequer, but if CBI sources are to be believed it was a result of a much larger game that was taking shape even before A Raja had become the telecom minister.
According to the CBI sources the seeds of greed by the realty companies and Raja’s involvement go back to his previous tenure as the minister of environment. It was then that all the realtors needed the minister’s favour for getting the environment clearance by the ministry. This unholy friendship culminated in all these companies getting the environment clearance certificate to their projects in the pipeline.
However, there were other vested interests who wanted A Raja to be the telecom minister for getting a pie of the much larger cake. After all, the telecom spectrum allocation was the next big thing and Raja was subsequently planted over there to serve the purpose. In the process the realtors who had already paid to Raja in advance for getting the environment clearance got their projects stuck up. A Raja was no more in the environment ministry to get those files cleared.
The old friendship had by then blossomed into close working relations as well. As a result, the friends in real estate community were asked to apply for the 2G spectrum which was seen as a very lucrative business. That is how the realty companies were shown the entry gate of telecom and 2007 onwards there had been a race among the realty companies to get into telecom. The genesis of one of the biggest corruption scandal was more by default than design.
