MxMIndia

Tag: 2G scam

  • In Freaking News, Ranjona Banerji reviews the fare on primetime news and in the papers

    Headlines Today scores on 2G

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    The fault is mine: I got to the television two hours late on Thursday – after the Supreme Court ruling on the 2G licences. The punishment was purgatory: I knew something had happened but I had no idea what. Every TV news channel showed a press conference addressed by the BJP’s Arun Jaitley reacting to the court ruling but no one told us what the ruling was. I travelled up and down the channels that my cablewallah allows me and learnt nothing. Jaitley could have been ranting or talking sense but since I had no context I could not fully appreciate or understand him.

     

    After 10 minutes of fruitless frustration I did the sensible thing: got online and read the latest updates by print journalists. Till Thursday evening, the whole thing was only about “reaction” on television, sometimes from small-time party functionaries and sometimes by bigwigs like Kapil Sibal who had to counter Jaitley with his own spin. One poor reporter even ran after the judge AK Ganguly as he retired and asked him how he felt. The honourable judge ran away as fast as he could. All through the day they broadcast a reaction from some telecom honcho but never told us who he was.

     

    It says something about the way television journalists operate that they cannot explain events or interpret them for viewers themselves. Something as important as this 2G ruling requires reporters and anchors to get all the facts themselves and tell the viewers exactly what has happened before playing the “reaction” game. Also, instead of telecasting every single press conference live in its entirety, they could edit or cut back to studio to explain what was happening mid-way.

     

    Business channels were, sadly, no better since they are all obsessed with the stock market and cannot consider implications beyond that. But one would imagine that the cancelling of 122 licences would have huge impact on their constituencies. I guess one imagines wrong.

     

    The most sensible TV debate on the subject was a surprise – it was not at prime time and it was on Headlines Today. Thanks largely to Paranjoy Guha Thakurta as well as to Sandeep Bamzai, we got a clear idea of the economic and political implications of the judgment.

     

    The rest of debates seem to have the usual suspects who talk about everything – Chandan Mitra, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Mahesh Jethamalani, Nirmala Seetharaman, Renuka Chowdhury and perhaps Suhel Seth was there somewhere but I didn’t catch him.

     

    Niira Radia and Ratan Tata were not there.

     

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    This round once again goes to newspapers who explained the matter in every detail from the political implications for the UPA government to the business implications for the telcos to the fortunes of A Raja and P Chidambaram and so on. However, while every newspaper and TV channel said it was 122 licences, The Times of India decided on 121. No idea why.

     

    Most newspaper editorials did raise the question of the unfairness meted out to telcos which were being punished for following government laws. This is a tricky one. It would be interesting to see whether there’s more discussion about the dangers of corporate lobbying and the role played by journalists in getting A Raja the ministry of his choice.

     

    I’m not holding my breath, actually.

     

  • If the businessmen aren't going to learn anything from the nation's biggest, mind-numbing financial scam, they never will

    Anil Thakraney: Time for clean up the 2G scam

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    The Supreme Court’s judgment on the 2G spectrum scandal is horrendous news for the telecom industry, the entire corporate world and the end consumer. The court has cancelled the 122 spectrum licenses issued in 2008 by the great A Raja, the then telecom minister. Fresh auctions will be held later in the year, and new allotments made.

     

    This means the cost of the licenses will shoot up, and the additional expenses will be passed on to the subscribers. What impact this will have on the telecom boom, you can easily imagine. Not just that. This judgment finally confirms the massive corruption involved in the 2G scam, and this is going to damage the overall business sentiment in the country. Foreign investors are going to think many, many times before parking their funds in this maha corrupt nation. Where, first you are expected to bribe to get licenses, and then one day you could be back to square one, your business model sent for a toss. Basically, it’s a lose-all situation.

     

    However, one hopes this huge scandal and its fall-out will serve as a starting point for a massive clean-up operation. Quite obviously, blatant corrupt practices such as these cannot be allowed to go on. If a huge shake up doesn’t take place this time, we will see this happen again and again. To begin with, Shri Chidambaram, who was the finance minister when Raja tore into the cookie jar, must accept moral responsibility and quit. And if he doesn’t, the mantri ought to be immediately sacked. Even if he was in the dark on the then telecom minister’s nefarious activities, he must be held accountable. Because at the very least, Chidu fiddled while Rome burnt. This is important. It’s not enough that Raja is in jail, the big heads must roll.

     

    And secondly, corporates in the telecom sector must take equal blame for this mess. Because if they had refused to bribe Raja, this scale of corruption wouldn’t have happened. The scam should be a lesson for all suits that they must play an equal part if the nation has to be rid of graft. In any shady deal, at least two shady partners have to be involved.

     

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”200″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lw9ZeXB2uKs[/youtube]

    So even as the telecom industry gets busy and studies the exact impact of the SC’s judgment, it’s time for all corporates to wake up and smell the coffee. And swear to run a clean ship from now on. If the businessmen aren’t going to learn anything from the nation’s biggest, mind-numbing financial scam, they never will.

     

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