Government to defend home minister

New Delhi: The federal government is ready to defend Home Minister P. Chidambaram in the 2G spectrum allocation scam case.

Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy's petition to investigate Chidambaram's role as the Finance Minister when the scam took place in 2008 is to be taken up by the trial court today.

Supreme Court Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly on Thursday referred the matter to the court of Judge O.P. Saini and cancelled licences issued under controversial circumstances by then Telecom Minister A. Raja to 122 telecom companies.

The apex court said that its order on the 2G spectrum allocation scam should in no way influence the proceedings before the trial court when that court is taking the final decision on Swamy's petition against Chidambaram.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal, Defence Minister A.K. Antony and Home Minister Chidambaram held a high level meeting on Thursday evening to finalise the strategy to defend Chidambaram.

According to sources, the government now intends to use the Supreme Court's Thursday observation that the Department of Telecom did not listen to advice from the finance ministry when it went ahead with its first-come-first-serve policy in allocating 2G spectrum.

A finance ministry note prepared last year had put Chidambaram in trouble as it said that Chidambaram as then finance minister did not press for auction of the 2G spectrums.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) estimated allocations caused the exchequer to lose Rs1.76 trillion (Dh132 billion).