Black Sheep Or Scapegoat?

A. Raja's upcoming book claims he was made the fall guy in the 2G scam, and questions the silence of Congress bigwigs

- Lakshmi Subramanian

In 2014, a few months before his death, former attorney general Goolam Essaji Vahanvati requested a personal meeting with an accused, whom he had vehemently argued against. The invitation surprised the man who had emerged as a mascot of corruption in India.

Former telecom minister A. Raja, who was once charged by Vahanvati with betraying his trust and altering a press note on 2G licences, obliged the ailing Vahanvati's request.

Vahanvati, who was solicitor general from 2004 to 2007, had trashed Raja’s submission that then external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee, Raja and he had had a meeting regarding the 2G policy.

Vahanvati told the Joint Parliamentary Committee headed by P.C. Chacko that there was no such meeting, and that Raja did not get the 2G policy 'approved' by Pranab or himself. However, a reply to an RTI query in 2013 confirmed that the meeting was held in the first week of December 2007, and the changes to the first-come, first-served policy on 2G spectrum allocations were made with 'consent'.

Raja, a staunch atheist, does not believe that it was fate that made Vahanvati call him over to confess his “guilt”. “There were 'people' who knew what was going on,” says a confidant of Raja, who is out on bail and shuttling between Tamil Nadu and Delhi and .

And, through his tell-all book, In My Defence, Raja wants everyone to know about what was going on. Excerpts of the book, accessed by THE WEEK, portray him as “the fall guy”.

The 356-page book, published by Penguin, is likely to be released in September. The book was supposed to be launched last year; why the delay? “Seniors in the DMK (Raja's party) wanted him to wait till the Tamil Nadu assembly elections got over,” says the confidant.