SEVERAL TV channels said India’s powerful home minister offered to resign yesterday, days after a document emerged suggesting he failed to stop a multi-billion dollar telecoms scam that has rocked the government.
The scandal over the sale of 2G telecoms licences at rock bottom prices in 2007 when Palaniappan Chidambaram was finance minister has damaged the government’s credibility and already landed one former minister and company executives in jail.
Chidambaram told ruling Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi he wanted to resign to avoid embarrassing the party, CNN-IBN reported, citing unnamed sources.
Congress spokesmen declined to comment when reporters asked about the reports of a resignation offer during a news conference.
An analyst said Gandhi was unlikely to accept Chidambaram’s offer because it would be seen as admitting the government erred in the telecoms deal.
He has offered to step down over other issues in the past.
A finance ministry memo made public last week implied Chidambaram failed to rectify the underpriced sale of telecoms licences that lost the treasury up to $39bn (£25.09bn).
Former telecommunications minister Andimuthu Raja was arrested and imprisoned in February in connection with the telecom scandal, one of a string of corruption allegations involving the Congress party-led government.
Raja denies any wrongdoing.
The memo, written by the finance ministry and sent to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh this year, suggests Chidambaram in 2008 chose not to revise the underpriced telecoms deals despite recommendations from other officials to do so.
The note was approved by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, considered by many to be a rival to Chidambaram in the cabinet.
It was presented to the Supreme Court by an opposition politician who wants Chidambaram to stand trial for the scam. Analysts are divided about the significance of the memo and whether it is admissible as evidence.
Mukherjee yesterday said Chidambaram was a valued colleague, as he entered a meeting with Gandhi about the memo, TV channels reported.
