Dayanidhi Maran denied 2G spectrum allocation

Union Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran on Saturday (November 20) denied any wrongdoing in 2G spectrum allocation and its pricing during his tenure as Telecom Minister and alleged selective leaks of communication between him and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the issue. 

Talking to media in Chennai, he also defended Singh describing him 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". 

"Media is making a mountain of my letter to the Prime Minister in 2006 by taking only a selective piece of the letter," Maran, the grandnephew of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK chief M Karunanidhi, said. 

He claimed he was the one who took up the issue of getting spectrum from Defence Ministry to the Department of Telecom. Maran also asserted that ties between DMK and Congress are strong. 

On former Telecom Minister A Raja, who had to bow out of office in the wake of the spectrum controversy, Maran said Raja was capable of defending himself and he was doing a "good job" of it now. 

Maran said "most of the spectrum was sitting with the Defence Ministry and it was at my instance that a Group of Ministers (GoM) was set up to study the issue." 

"But unfortunately none of the media came and showed to the public the terms and references (of the GoM), but only abused and also damaged my party DMK, saying it was trying to arm-twist the Prime Minister," he said. 

Describing his 2006 letter on spectrum pricing to the Prime Minister as a normal communication, he said it was not right for the media to judge a letter without seeing the attachments and "jump to conclusions". 

"Media is trying to connect the 2006 letter to today's scenario. Today's scenario is different and the 2006 scenario was different," he said. 

There was not even a single controversy till he was the IT, Telecom and Communication Minister, Maran said.