2G claims second victim; Dayanidhi Maran quits Cabinet

New Delhi, Jul 7 (PTI) The 2G Spectrum scam on
Thursday claimed its second victim in the Union Cabinet when
Indian Textiles Minister and DMK nominee Dayanidhi Maran
resigned a day after the CBI implicated him in the case making
his continuance untenable.
44-year-old Maran, the second minister from the
Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam (DMK) to suffer an ignominious exit
in eight months, met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after a
Cabinet meeting and tendered his resignation following a word
from DMK chief M Karunanidhi, highly-placed sources said.
Things appeared to have moved fast hastening his
ouster ever since the premier investigative agency CBI filed a
status report in the Supreme Court on Wednesday on the 2G
spectrum case.
The agency had accused him of "forcing" a
Chennai-based telecom promoter C Sivasankaran to sell his
stakes in Aircel to a Malaysian firm in 2006 during his tenure
as Telecom Minister in UPA-I.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called DMK Parliamentary
Party chief T R Baalu this morning and told him that Maran has
to resign and that it should be conveyed to party chief M
Karunanidhi, sources said.
Baalu, who is here, is believed to have got in touch
with his party chief who in turn asked Maran to put in his
papers.
Maran, who attended a Cabinet meeting till noon at the
Prime Minister's residence, returned to his home only to make
another trip, this time in his personal car, to the 7, RCR
residence of the Prime Minister to handover his resignation.
The resignation failed to satisfy Opposition parties,
which said it was "long overdue" and faulted Singh for not
demanding it earlier.

Neither Maran talked to the media nor was there any
official word on his resignation, a second for Maran, who had
earlier quit in May, 2007 following differences within the
DMK's first family.
Maran's grand uncle Karunanidhi said in Chennai that
it was the media which was ruling the country now and it can
defame anyone. "Dayanidhi Maran is no exception (to this)."
He said the party will stand by Maran and that none
from UPA -- either the Prime Minister or UPA chief Sonia
Gandhi -- called him regarding Maran's resignation.
"It is your imagination," he shot back when asked
whether he has written to Singh seeking removal of Maran and
inclusion of Baalu and some others in the proposed reshuffle
of the Union Council of Ministers.
Congress sources said that Maran had no option but to
resign after the placing of the status report by the CBI in
the Supreme Court pointing out that it was a considered view
point of the investigating agency.
They felt that Maran should have resigned more than a
month ago when Sivasankaran of Aircel had told the CBI that he
was threatened to sell his stakes to a Malaysian firm.
Meanwhile, CBI sources said that Maran may be
questioned in connection with his alleged role in coercing
Sivasankaran to sell his stake to a Malaysia-based group.
Maran will be quizzed on the allegations levelled by
Sivasankaran and spectrum policy changes made during his
tenure during UPA-I, the sources said.
He is also the second victim in the scam from the
DMK's first family after Kanimozhi, the daughter of the DMK
chief, who is in Tihar jail for her alleged involvement in the
scam.

It was business as usual for Maran in the morning as
he attended the Cabinet meeting during which he abstained
himself for a brief while when the issue of licence for FM
channels came up.
He kept himself away on account of conflict of
interest because his brother Kalanidhi Maran runs a media
empire that includes FM channels in various languages.
With this, Maran becomes the second DMK minister to
step down for alleged involvement in 2G scam. Former Telecom
Minister A Raja was forced to resign in November, 2010 when
the CAG indicted him in the scam.
The BJP said Maran's resignation was "long overdue"
and demanded that Home Minister P Chidambaram too should
follow suit.
"P Chidambaram should resign. We have already demanded
this as the 2G spectrum scam could not have occured had the
Finance Ministry (then headed by him) not changed its stand on
the issue of auctioning radiowaves," BJP spokesperson Prakash
Javadekar said on Thursday.
On Maran, Javadekar said he should have resigned long
back and asked why does the Prime Minister delay the removal
of "corrupt members" of his team.
"Initially, efforts are made to defend them. When all
routes are exhausted, action is taken," he said.
In Chennai, AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa said it was
long overdue and that the Prime Minister should have made
him quit earlier.
"This is something long overdue. The Prime Minister
should have made him to resign long ago," she said.
On its part, the Congress left the Government to fend
for itself over the resignation of Maran.
"If at all anything has to be said about the sequence
of events...it is for the government to do so," party
spokesman Manish Tewari told reporters.