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In November 2010, a leaked CAG report on the 2G spectrum policy suggested that 1.76 lakh crores were lost (described as ‘presumptive loss’) to the government exchequer because of myopic, even legally questionable policies of the then UPA government in handing out valuable spectrum resource in 2007–08 at the price of 2001. Soon, the 2G episode was proclaimed to be the ‘Mother of all Scams’. Seven years later, in December 2017, a special CBI court pronounced the verdict in this case in just a single line: ‘The prosecution has miserably failed to prove its case, and all accused are acquitted.’

Spectrum Politics: Unveiling the Defence is a maiden attempt in the direction of removing avoidable confusion being piled up in the minds of the people of India. The book establishes the hard facts of the 2G case—from the origins of spectrum policy under the the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government from 1998 to 2004 to the findings of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) set up to investigate the matter—and enlightens readers that this case was far from a scandal rather a corporate battle to scuttle the allocation of spectrum licences.

Rich in its detail and insight, Salman Khurshid channels his remarkable expertise in policy matters to highlight how deliberate distortion caused endless anguish to individuals, the Congress and indeed the country. Every citizen concerned about our polity should read and reflect upon the lucid and incisive narrative of this book, which is, in a sense, about the past, present and equally about the future.