S Band Scam Mystery

In one thought that the Rs.1, 76,000 crores 2G Spectrum Scam was the last straw in the ongoing exposures of scam after scam, one is badly mistaken. Initial reports spread over the past 2 days indicate that the S Band Spectrum scam has raised the bar in the unimaginable magnitude of the ongoing INDIA. One shudders to imagine what next?

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India is reportedly investigating the latest S Band scam which is estimated to have cost the exchequer a loss of Rs. 2,00,000 crores. The investigations concern the Indian Space Research Organization which comes under the Ministry of Space, a ministry directly under the Prime Minister of India, and the deal it has signed through its commercial arm Antrix Corporation Ltd with Devas Multimedia Private Ltd.Devas is promoted by Dr MG Chandrasekhar, former scientific secretary at ISRO.Under this deal 70 MHz of the scarce national resource S Band was allotted to Devas for a period of 20 years.

The following suspicions naturally come to mind –
Why did no one know about this deal, which was signed on January 28, 2005 till it was exposed by the media, which came to know about the C.A.G. investigations?

Why did the government maintain so much secrecy about this deal, why was the nation not informed about it?

Why no competitive bidding was called for, as is done in cases where there is allotment of national resources?

Why is the Prime Minister’s office saying that no loss was caused to the exchequer, when an auction of 15 MHz of for 3G Spectrum fetched more than Rs 67,000 crores.

Why was this contract awarded for only 1,000 crores?

Why is it taking the Prime Minister so long to make a statement and rubbish all the allegations, if they are false?

This time around there are no ‘Rajas” and ‘Kalmadi’s ‘to conveniently pass the buck to. The ministry is directly under the Prime Minister. The then Minister in the P.M.O. Prithviraj Chavan, now Chief Minister of Maharashtra has made a public statement that he does not know about the deal, as it was not handled by him. If he did not handle the deal then who handled it? It is unthinkable that the scientists of I.S.R.O. could have pulled off something of this magnitude, unless they were acting on orders. Whose orders?

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