2G scam: Maran defends himself against all allegations

CHENNAI - Union Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran on Saturday defending himself against all allegations that link him with the 2G spectrum allocation scam, said there was no wrong doing in the allocation and its pricing when he was holding the portfolio of the Telecom Ministry.

Describing himself as a bold and honest leader, Maran said the media was making an issue of a letter by him in 2006 to the Prime Minister on spectrum pricing, connecting it to the ‘present scenario’.

“I have been seeing the last two days that a selected piece of letter, which is a communication from me to the Honourable Prime Minister, has been made a big deal. The letter goes back to 2006 when I was the Minister for communications and Information Technology,” said Maran.

“It quite saddens me that the media is trying to relate the current situation and trying to pass the judgment of 2006 letter to today’s scenario,” he added.

Dayanidhi Maran, the grandnephew of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) chief M Karunanidhi, further claimed that he was the one, who took up the issue of getting spectrum from Defence Ministry to the Department of Telecom

It is at my instance that I approached the Prime Minister and asked him for an Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) to be set up, not only with the Defence Ministry but also with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to release the much-valued spectrum for the telecom sector,” Maran told reporters in Chennai today.

“It was then asked by my Ministry to come out with the terms of references and unfortunately none of the media have come out and shown to the public the terms of references, but tried to accuse that and also to damage the image of my party DMK that we are trying to arm-twist the Prime Minister,” he added. (ANI)