RS: So CAG is wrong, SC is wrong, only Raja is right.
A Raja: No, No… I can't say SC is wrong. CAG gave a report to the parliament and parliament rejected it, not Raja. SC gave a judgment; president is not accepting the interpretation. Why are you accusing only me of not accepting it?
RS: I will tell you why? Cutoff date was 1st October 2007. On 24 September, a press release was issued and cutoff date changed. You said the application received till 26 September will only be accepted. And you issued licenses on basis of that.
A Raja: There is confusion. There were not two cutoff dates at all. TRAI recommended to me that go for new operators as there was a cartel of existing operators. The law says that tarrif has to be increased or reduced by competition. So it's not in the minister's hand to bring down the tariff. TRAI recommended that since tariffs were not coming down; inject competition by bringing in new operators. After this, I put it in public domain that those who are intending to file for licenses, please apply on or before this date. So the first date was to file for license. The date 1st October was meant for receiving applications only. I got 575 applications. The spectrum was limited. We thought we can't give license to 575 applicants. Then the press release appeared on 25th September. Therefore please don't confuse on the two dates. We said we can't process more applications received after 25 Sep given the scarcity of spectrum. They will be considered if more spectrum is released.
RS: The accusation is that you changed the dates to give license to your friends and stop others.
A Raja: see, the spectrum was allocated on first come, first serve basis. I could not help my friends. It was done like A, B,C,D. I could not jump to X, Y,Z… The order is there.
