National

Karunanidhi defends Raja

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi on Friday came to the defence of Perambalur district DMK secretary and Union Communications and Information Technology Minister A. Raja, saying that the manner of 2G spectrum sale had the approval of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

“Mr. Raja has already explained that all the actions in his Ministry have the approval of the Prime Minister,” Mr. Karunanidhi said, and added that even the CPI(M)’s trade union in the BSNL had supported the Minister.

Mr. Karunanidhi cited from a letter written by the United Forum for BSNL Unions to drive home his point that there was no wrongdoing in any of the deals: “It has come to our notice that reports have been published in certain newspapers in Tamil Nadu on behalf of some functionaries of BSNL Unions expressing doubts about the 2G spectrum policy of the government. We do not find any deviation in the prevailing policy of the government and endorse the decision of the government in this regard. In fact, we congratulate and thank the Honourable Communications Minister for taking the courageous decision to allot 3G spectrum to BSNL in advance without any auction, which is in the best interests of BSNL and its workers.”

His defence of Mr. Raja follows the allegation of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Thursday that a “big scam” had taken place in the allocation of 2G spectrum to mobile operators. The party had also asked for a probe into the allocation on the first come, first served policy as it resulted in a huge loss to the exchequer.

Mr. Karunanidhi said that Mr. Raja, who belongs to the Scheduled Caste, had studied and progressed in life surmounting many huge obstacles and now is a Union Minister.