The 2G scam has been raging for what seems like ages now, embarrassing politicians, industrialists and journalists alike.
It's high time to come out with an A to Z of the whole controversy...
A for Andimuthu Raja
Raja has gone into a territory where no man or woman has gone before. He's been involved in the biggest scam in Independent India.
Our poor developing country suddenly seems very rich: Just one tender of one ministry could have scope of siphoning off so much cash!
B for Barkha Dutt
For years she has asked difficult questions on talk shows and interviews, while her channel has aired countless allegations against countless people. But when difficult questions were asked about her pro-Raja chit chat with Niira Radia, she showed that she could evade, stonewall and deny with as much aplomb as any other politician.
C for CAG
The office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India is the one that came out with the Rs 1,76,379 crore figure in the first place!
This has been contested by people like Kapil Sibal, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. But it's been bandied about so much by the media that it has already become an iconic figure.
D for Datacom & Co.
In November, the comptroller detected companies that did not have up-front capital during application and issued show-cause notices to Datacom (Videocon), Etisalat, Loop Mobile, Unitech etc. In all, a whopping 85 licenses were granted!
E for ED
The Enforcement Directorate and the CBI will be probing the whole issue. There have been raids, interrogations and documents seized, but so far there have been no breakthroughs.
Recently the ED made a demand for more staff and offices as they are already tied up with the CWG investigations!
F for Frequency Allocation of the Spectrum
That's what it's all about: Allocation of the spectrum to various players. Actually the first round went relatively smoothly. It was only the second round kicked off by Raja that has led to all this.
The licences were sold well below their market value, leading to a shortfall of money to the tune estimated by the CAG.
G for Generations of mobile telephony
1G was analog mobile telephony. 2G was digital. 3G is mobile broadband telephony.
While the whole world is talking of 4G, India is still stuck in a 2G world of scams, congestion and call drops. There is many a slip between one generation of mobile telephony and another in India.
H for Hawala
Two hawala dealers are said to be involved illegal financial deals related to the 2G scam. Interestingly, the Hawala Scandal of the 1990s was one of the biggest CBI failures.
After all the hype and headlines, practically nothing happened in the end. Will that happen here too?
I for Income Tax Department
It all began here. The IT department was investigating Niira Radia and started tapping her phones with the clearance of the Home Ministry and PMO way back in 2008. So Manmohan Singh has probably been in the know for that much time!
J for JPC
That's another bone of contention between the Congress and the BJP. All demands of a Joint Parliamentary Committee have fallen on deaf years, so much so that the BJP has finally demanded the resignation of the Prime Minister. A new low for Manmohan Singh.
K for Karunanidhi
The DMK and its chief Karunanidhi thrust Raja on the whole nation and kept him there despite all the pressure against it.
Why have they been virtually let off the hook? When will they answer all the awkward questions? When they face Tamil Nadu in the upcoming Assembly polls in a few months?
L for Leaks
300 days of tapping with Radia. It all ended in 2009. But the selective leaks started happening in 2010 only. Actually here, the more interesting part seems to be what has not been leaked so far. Will that be leaked in 2011?
M for Manmohan Singh
What a run the PM has had from 2004-09. The coveted top post. Surviving the Trust Vote in his last term. The nuclear deal. Re-election. Then in 2010, just when he had survived the CWG scandal, 2G came and changed everything.
N for Niira Radia
Nobody could have ever imagined that a PR chief could wield so much clout and open a can of worms that would engulf the entire nation. Politicians. Industrialists. Editors. She seemed to have everyone at her beck and call.
O for Outlook and Open
Only two media organizations stood out in the whole fiasco in an issue which most wanted to shove under the carpet due to the presence of so many journalists in the tapes. The 800 tapes got hold by Outlook is the closest to WikiLeaks India has ever had.
P for PAC
Will the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee question the PM or not? Will chairman Murli Manohar Joshi toe the party line or not? Both the Congress and BJP are nervous. If the JPC is not happening, then PAC sure is.
Q for Queue jumping
Who jumped the queue? Who benefited out of turn? This has led to a slanging match between various parties and we will never know the full truth.
R for Reliance Brothers
Reliance Infocomm was seen as a beneficiary during the NDA Government regime, particularly when the late Pramod Mahajan was Telecom Minister. There was a lot of buzz around the Ambani Brothers in the leaked tapes. And of course, Radia is a consultant for Mukesh Ambani.
S for SC and Subraniam Swamy
Swamy has been a real mover and shaker. He protested the Emergency, worked at Indo-Israeli and Indo-China ties, helped refuel US warplanes in India during the Gulf War, fought against the Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project and questioned the way EVMs were used.
Even here, his complaint to the Supreme Court led to the opening of Radia's... err... Pandora's Box.
T for Tata
The house of the Tatas has been spotless for ages, but off late controversies have caught up with it. The Ratan-Radia conversations have been talked about extensively. Ratan even petitioned the government over his right to privacy.
U for UMTS
While most of the mobile operators are stuck in the 2G world, BSNL has quietly switched to Universal Mobile Telecommunications System for its 3G services.
V for Vir Sanghvi
Poor ole Vir Sanghvi. He's a great columnist and has been a great editor of various publications. But all the public will remember is his taped conversations with Niira Radia. The media has never taken such a beating in any scam.
W for WLL
Wireless in Local Loop. Remember, it was Arun Shourie in 2003 who allowed fixed-line operators (they had paid much lesser license fees than their mobile counterparts) to give mobile services in the limited WLL mode.
An out-of-court settlement followed. Beneficiaries were the Ambani brothers and Mr Ratan Tata.
X, symbolizing the unknown quantity
Unknown it is. Who got how much money? Forget about loss to the exchequer, but who actually paid bribes? Who are all on the tapes? Who is selectively leaking the tapes? To what purpose?
Y for Yesterday
The Congress and the BJP is caught between today and yesterday. While the BJP wants detailed investigations into the goings of the government of the day, the Congress wants to take it to yesterday. Yesterday = NDA government. But what it all means is that nothing may happen tomorrow.
Z for Zeroes
Did you know that you can have 12 zeroes in the figure bandied about in the 2G scam? It's an absolutely mind-boggling figure.
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