Pressure grows on Indian PM over telecom scam

New Delhi: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is facing his biggest crisis since re-election as his government reels under a massive corruption scandal involving the sale of 2G telecommunication licences below market prices.

Singh said on Saturday that any wrongdoers in the widening telecoms scam will be prosecuted.

In his first comments since the corruption scandal blew up, Singh told a leadership summit in Delhi that several investigating agencies were looking into the issue.

"As far as this particular allocation of the 2G spectrum is concerned (as) parliament is in session, I would not like to make a detailed statement," Singh added, without giving details.

The controversy has hit Mumbai's stock market, sending telecoms shares lower.

Singh has been ordered to explain to the Supreme Court why he failed to swiftly probe his Telecoms Minister Andimuthu Raja, who was dismissed last week, over selling telecoms licences too cheaply.

Singh also took no action after a senior opposition lawmaker asked the prime minister's office in 2008 to investigate Raja.

Janata Party President and former law minister Subramaniam Swamy contends that the Prime Minister's Office responded to only one of his five letters calling for Raja to be prosecuted, and that after a lapse of 16 months. Furthermore, he says he received a letter from Raja himself, explaining why the former's request for the latter to be prosecuted was being denied.

A representative of the government is due to file an affidavit to the Supreme Court detailing the government's response later on Saturday.

As a result of the embarrassment, the government on Friday announced that Singh will henceforth be represented in this matter by Attorney-General Ghoolam E. Vahanvati, rather than Solicitor-General Gopal Subramanium.

"It is not a question of replacement but of better coordination," Subramanium said. "I will continue to represent the central government and the Department of Telecom while the attorney general will represent the prime minister."

The telecommunication scam, which resulted in Raja's resignation being accepted on Sunday, has rocked the country. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) submitted a report saying that Raja had flouted all the rules and cost the exchequer Rs1.76 trillion (Dh143.19 billion).

The opposition has paralysed parliament since November 10 and is demanding a joint parliamentary committee probe into the scandal. This was once again rejected by the government on Friday, which said that while the Central Bureau of Investigation was probing the telecom scam, the opposition-led Public Accounts Committee would look into the CAG report.

The deadlock forced the adjournment of both houses of parliament again on Friday.

Scandal: What is at stake for the prime minister?

India's attorney general, the country's highest legal officer, will file the affidavit on behalf of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by Saturday, before appearing before the Supreme Court in person on Tuesday.

The court will examine the evidence of Singh's interactions with former telecom minister Andimuthu Raja, and the validity of Opposition MP Subramanian Swamy's charge that the prime minister failed to act on his complaint.

The court cannot prosecute the prime minister but could say he failed to investigate Raja. Any suggestion that Singh ignored a case for prosecution would deal a severe blow to his reputation and call his leadership into question.

With input from agencies