Indian PM accused of standing by during huge telecom scandal

India's Mr Clean has finally been pulled down into the muck of factional politics.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the blue-turbaned economist credited with unleashing India's explosive growth, stands accused of dragging his heels while one of his ministers presided over a telecoms scandal that cost the country nearly $40 billion (about 25bn).

The Supreme Court has rebuked the prime minister and is demanding his government explain itself. The opposition has paralysed parliament in protest.

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While there is no suggestion Mr Singh, 78, benefited personally from the scandal, his reputation as a rare leader untainted by India's crass political deal-making has taken a serious hit.

The government is sending the attorney general to represent Mr Singh at a Supreme Court hearing scheduled for today.

Mr Singh has promised to get to the bottom of what could be the costliest political scandal in India's history, saying this weekend: "If any wrong thing has been done by anybody, he or she will be brought to book."

The allegations concern the 2008 sale of second-generation (2G) mobile phone licences in a process run by then-telecoms minister Andimuthu Raja with ever-changing rules that raised eyebrows even at the time. The sale netted India $2.7bn, an amount that seemed absurdly low after an auction of 3G licences this May raised $14.6bn.

In a report issued last week, the state auditor general said the 2G sale was run "in an arbitrary, unfair and inequitable manner" that violated Mr Singh's wishes for a transparent bidding process and cost the government as much as $36bn. Many of the 122 licences were given to "ineligible applicants", who then sold their stakes at a high premium.

Despite persistent questions about his conduct, and an ongoing inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation, Mr Raja - a member of a small ethnic Tamil party which switched parliamentary loyalty to Mr Singh's ruling Congress party from the BJP - continued to serve as Mr Singh's telecoms minister.

The Supreme Court has demanded that Mr Singh explain why he took more than a year to answer parliamentary demands to investigate Mr Raja, who was forced to resign last week.

"The allegation is not that (Mr Singh] is a crook, but that he is the night watchman that stood idly by while others robbed the place blind," said Vir Sanghvi, editorial director of the Hindustan Times newspaper.

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Earlier this month, the party forced out Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan amid revelations that his relatives and other officials received deeply discounted homes in Mumbai meant to house war veterans and widows. It also forced Suresh Kalmadi to resign his leadership position in the party amid scandals surrounding India's recent hosting of the Commonwealth Games, which he organised.

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