Baba Ramdev slams Congress over SC's verdict on 2G scam

Mathura, Feb 2 (ANI): Yoga guru Baba Ramdev said that after the Supreme Court's verdict of quashing all 122 telecoms licences issued under a scandal-tainted 2008 sale, the next move should be to extract the money with interest from the tainted ministers.

Ramdev said this on Thursday in Uttar Pradesh's Mathura District.

Lauding the apex court's verdict, Ramdev, at the sideline of a religious event, here today, said that the ruling would be beneficial if the stashed black money would be back to the country.

"The Honourable Supreme Court has quashed 122 telecom licenses has proved that a scam of Rs.176000 crores had occurred. Now the next move should be to get back the looted money with interest from the ministers who are responsible for the scam. Then only the country would get real justice. One by one all sins of the Central Government are coming forth. Now they have lost moral responsibility to remain in power," said Ramdev.

The yoga guru further added that apart from the two main accused in the scam-former telecom minister A Raja and lawmaker M K Kanimozhi-the entire Central Government is answerable to the public.

"Only A Raja and Kanimozhi are not responsible for it. The Central Government is completely responsible for it. Why only Chidambaram? Now the fingers are pointing at the entire Central Government and they are answerable for the scam and have to give a detail account of it to the entire nation," he added.

Supreme Court today revoked all 122-telecom licenses issued in 2008 as per the government's controversial first come first served policy.

The ruling came as a setback for Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh's government, which oversaw the sale of the licenses at below-market prices, costing the exchequer up to 36 billion dollars in lost revenues.

The licences affected by Thursday's ruling include all of those held by Unitech Wireless, the Indian joint venture of Norway's Telenor and Unitech.

India is the second-largest cellular market in the world by subscribers, with 894 million at the end of December, although the market is crowded with more than a dozen operators, making call rates among the lowest in the world and squeezing margins.

Investors and operators have long been calling for consolidation in the crowded industry, and Thursday's ruling stands to benefit the country's biggest operators, including Bharti Airtel and Vodafone. (ANI)