Swamy gives clean chit to PM in 2G case

In what appears to be a volte face on the 2G spectrum scandal,  Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy today gave a clean chit to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, telling the Supreme Court that the solicitor general had misled the prime minister's office and the court in the matter.
 
In an affidavit, Swamy stated that there was no mala fide intent on the part of the prime minister. Singh, he said, was badly advised by law officers, the law ministry and bureaucrats.
 
"It is regrettable that law officers of the government had failed to apprise the PM of the law of the land (and told him) that he must decide on the sanction question only on the material provided by me," Swamy, who sought Raja's prosecution, told the Supreme Court in his nine-page affidavit, submitted to the court's registry.
 
In a move that raised a furore in the media and Parliament, the Supreme Court had last week asked the prime minister to file an affidavit explaining his long silence on Swamy's 1988 plea for the prosecution of former telecom minister A Raja.

The prime minister's affidavit to the court on Saturday said the law ministry had advised him to wait for the Central Bureau of Investigation to gather the oral and documentary evidence before deciding on the question of prosecuting Raja.

"The prime mMinister made independent inquiries on the substance of my material provided in these letters, which is against the judgements of this court," Swamy said.

Swamy said his stand had been vindicated by the affidavit filed by the prime minister through his office. He sought court guidelines so that "such incidents do not recur".

Before filing his affidavit, Swamy said that the prime minister was "sabotaged by his bureaucrats, as the files just kept moving from one department to another. The PM is an economist - he doesn't know the law and should be given the benefit of the doubt. After all, he needed advice from the concerned departments."