Chennai: Taking on former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran of DMK over corruption allegations, AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa on Saturday charged him with laying the “basis for the Himalayan 2G spectrum scam”. She also raked up the Aircel-Maxis deal in which he and his brother Kalanidhi are accused while appealing to the voters in Central Chennai, where he is seeking a third successive term in Lok Sabha, to summarily reject him.
Campaigning for AIADMK candidate S. R. Vijayakumar, she alleged that Maran as telecom minister got 323 BSNL telephone lines installed in his house that were used for his family-run TV channel. By insisting that his telecom ministry should do spectrum pricing and the finance ministry should have no say in it, Maran, the grandnephew of DMK chief M. Karunanidhi, had laid the “foundation” for the Himalayan 2G scam, she said.
Referring to the Aircel-Maxis deal, she accused Maran of 'deliberately delaying' issuing of licence to Aircel for seven circles and that he “made (Aircel) sell its shares to Maxis of Malaysia, thus ensuring crores of rupees of profit for a DTH company run by his brother Kalanidhi”. Despite CBI writing to telecom department in 2007, there was no action for 44 months and it was only after the Supreme Court stepped in was a probe initiated, she said, insisting that such a candidate should not be allowed to win the election.
“We have neither seen nor heard of such a worst situation in India since independence. Corruption has been rampant in every Ministry and each scam runs into one to two lakh crore rupees”, Jayalalithaa said, slamming both the Congress and the DMK for the unprecedented corruption. She warned the people that the country’s coffers would be emptied if they were allowed to continue in power without being dislodged for good.
The AIADMK supremo also listed out the several public welfare schemes and infrastructure facilities done by her pro-people government and pledged that if the voters make their choices well and elect her candidates, the state and people would immensely benefit through an effective role at the Centre.
