Solicitor general embroidering or stretching truth: Subramanian Swamy

NEW DELHI - Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy Wednesday alleged that Solicitor General Gopal Subramanian could have been misled by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on communications with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the 2G spectrum allocation issue.

The solicitor general has either been misled by the PM’s office or misinformed the court, Swamy told reporters outside the apex court, which has asked the government to file a reply in an affidavit.

I am suggesting that solicitor general is either embroidering or stretching the truth. He is taking even routine acknowledgment as reply, said Swamy.

The Supreme Court had Tuesday taken exception to the 11-month “silence” of the prime minister on Swamy’s public interest litigation seeking sanction to initiate proceedings against then telecom minister A. Raja over the 2G spectrum allocation.

The solicitor general Gopal Subramaniam claimed he had been gone through records and claimed that all communications were replied to by the PM. I intervened to say that PM, as far as sanction is concerned, had only once communicated through the department of telecom that it was premature, Swamy said Wednesday.

He informed the court that he had never received any substantive reply from the prime minister to his five letters. He did not reply substantively since Nov 29, 2008.

“I had written to him five times, each time with additional documents attached,” said Swamy.

But the only communication was a letter from A. Raja, who resigned as communications and IT minister recently, addressed to Swamy in December 2009. It stated that the communication had been forwarded to him and the minister would like to make a reply.

The Janata Party leader pointed out that this was illegal — how could Raja be directed to reply, as the minister was an accused in his representation.

He then said the government should come clean that it could not take action against Raja due to “pressure”. He (prime minister) is a nice man, but obviously a weak man, said Swamy.