BENGALURU, May 26: Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad today said reported revelations made by former TRAI Chairman Pradip Baijal in his book only reflected on how the Manmohan Singh-led UPA Government functioned.
“The Government of Dr Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi had to face lot of shame because of 2G scam. Repeatedly they used to talk about zero loss and make fun of CAG report… Now if Pradip Baijal has written this, I haven’t read his book, it is really unfortunate,” Prasad told reporters here.
To a question about Dayanidhi Maran as the then Telecom Minister allegedly claiming himself to be the Prime Minister of Telecom department, Prasad said “I would not wish to comment on it, but if it is true, it clearly reflects on how Manmohan Singh government was functioning, where every minister thinks that he is the Prime Minister.”
“It is a matter of pain, this scam shouldn’t have happened. I don’t want to comment more on this, CBI inquiry is on, fair trial should happen,” he added.
Baijal in his self-published tell-all book ‘The Complete Story of Indian Reforms: 2G, Power and Private Enterprise – A Practitioner’s Diary’, has reportedly claimed that the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had warned him of “harm” if he didn’t cooperate in the 2G case.
It also claims that Maran had told Baijal that he was the Prime Minister of Telecom department.
Stating that he has only read about Baijal’s comments through newspaper reports, Prasad said, “If Ministers are threatening senior bureaucrats, if the Prime Minister is looking the other way, it is a very serious problem. Today I can proudly say that my Prime Minister Narendra Modi knows everything which is happening in the Government.”
“Can we believe that Dr Manmohan Singh, the learned economist Prime Minister for 10 years was not knowing what was happening? Sad days, sad times,” he added. (PTI)
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