Swamy meets PM, says he will file case against Raja

NEW DELHI - Janata Party leader and complainant in the 2G spectrum case Subramanian Swamy Friday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and said later he will file a criminal case against former telecom minister A. Raja next week.

“The Supreme Court has approved my contentions in the case against Raja. I will be filing a criminal case against Raja next week,” Swamy told IANS after he met Manmohan Singh at a function in the Parliament House.

“I and Manmohan Singh are old friends. We know each other for four decades. So, you should not be so surprised that we met,” he added.

“I had been a commerce minister and he had been a finance minister at the centre. However, in the recent past, I had been involved in teaching abroad,” he added.

Expressing hope that the guilty in the 2G spectrum scandal will be punished, Swamy said that the prime minister’s instructions were not being followed in the matter.

“Manmohan Singh may be an economist, but he is not an expert on legal matters. I raised several crucial questions in the case,” he said.

Asked whether he was back at the centre-stage of Indian politics, Swamy said: “I had been always at the centre-stage. Only difference was I was away for some time on academic work.” Swamy was a professor at Harvard,US.

What will be the impact of his case on the political scene in Tamil Nadu, where polls are due in May?

“Our party (JP) will contest the polls and raise the issue of corruption by Raja and other Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leaders,” Swamy said.

Will his party have an alliance with the AIADMK - the major rival of the DMK? “That you will have to ask J. Jayalalithaa (AIADMK supremo),” Swamy responded to IANS.

Swamy’s public interest litigation in the Supreme Court seeking permission for criminal prosecution of the then telecom minister A. Raja has created an upheaval in the political and legal circles. Raja resigned Nov 7, ahead of parliament’s winter session.

However, parliament continued to be adjourned for the 16th day Friday, as the opposition has been demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the spectrum scandal.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), in its report tabled in parliament Nov 16, said that the faulty spectrum allotment had caused huge losses to the public exchequer amounting to thousands of crores rupees.