Previous govts involved in some of the biggest scams: Union Minister

Mumbai, Feb 20: Previous governments inadequately regulated critical sectors such as telecom, amid massive scams, but our approach in creating a framework of regulation has been open and transparent, Union Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar has said.

During a discussion at the 'Mumbai Tech Week', Chandrasekhar emphasised the transformative approach of the Narendra Modi government.

“The telecom sector had some of the biggest scams. So, there is also a healthy dose of cynicism and skepticism when the government talks about regulation because there is a feeling that regulation is either pushing for a particular agenda or pushing forward the need for the government or a politician to control,” the minister told the gathering.

“But our approach to creating a framework of regulation has been open, transparent, and consultative. And it is not so much about government regulation as it is about all of the stakeholders coming together and creating the guardrails that are important for the orderly growth of any segment of our economy,” Chandrasekhar stressed.

“If it were just about innovation, if it were just about entrepreneurs doing their thing and we did not have some rules, laws, and guardrails, you would have chaos,” he added.

The White Paper on Indian Economy, tabled in the Lok Sabha by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman earlier this month, enumerated about 15 cases of corruption and scams that happened during the 10-year rule of the Congress-led UPA government.

As per the document, the UPA's decade of governance was marked by a series of scams in multiple sectors, ranging from coal to telecom to aviation.

The 2G scam involved a loss of about Rs 1.76 lakh crore of potential revenue to the government, as estimated by the CAG (at the rates paid for 3G spectrum). The corruption cases are in the appellate court.