Ethical Issues With the outbreak of the 2G spectrum scam, the following ethical issues on the part of the

Government, Regulatory bodies, media and industry came into the forefront. Spirit of collective responsibility not conserved: An ethics of co-responsibility is required and can only be implemented through mechanisms well beyond the legal system. In the 2G scam, almost all of the entire media and nation has put the name of Mr A. Raja as the responsible person for the corruption but the actual decision of telecom policy was passed through the cabinet.

Too much power in hands of very few: This is what actually happened in case of 2Gscam. The entire decision making power rested in the hands of selected bureaucrats.

Middle men used for access to those in power: Middlemen were used to by company officials and other illicit channels to reach the ministers. People in power were lured by money. Those who did not bend to the power of money were either transferred or were threatened. Neutrality of media questionable: In the 2G Spectrum Scam Case, instead of providing valuable insights, the media is trying to become the judiciary. The media has targeted easy scapegoats, revolving their stories around a selected few because even they know that it is difficult for them to target certain big names like the Tatas,Ambanis and Ruias Personal greed puts business ethics at stake : Raja was the mastermind of this whole scam and his personal greed made him do all the corrupt things. The 2 fundamentals of business i.e. fair dealing and transparency was completely kept aside to enjoy the false fruits. Wrong use of power leads to a great turmoil: Raja being the Telecom minister, tried to influence the senior officials of DOT by all means. Those who didnt get influenced were either transferred or removed from their posts. Dilemma Faced By A. Raja: Mr A. Raja was in a dilemma whether he should disclose the name of every main conspirator of the plot, or should he wait for his fellow mates having a reputed position in the government and corporate world to help him get out 3.1.1. Role of A. Raja A Raja has is alleged to have received 3,000crore(US$546 million) as bribe for bringing forward the cut-off date for applications for spectrum from the initial 1 October 2007 to 25September 2007. At the time of taking decision he might have got influenced of the dilemmarelated to it but money made him blind and despite of knowing the risk associated and at thestake of his personal values, he took the decision of performing the 2G Scam. There was alsoa clear conflict of

interest among promoters, shareholders and other stakeholders of company.The conflict of public shareholders and stakeholders put them in very interesting position .There was also a dilemma when the case uncovered which was more or less can be termed asthe prisoners dilemma as should he tell the names of all the person associated or only few because it was a very high end case consisting of many renowned politicians and bureaucrats

Dilemma faced by the Government: In this context ethical dilemma was on the part of the government after the case gotuncovered as it involved many politicians, bureaucrats, & ministers so either to put charge onall of them showing the vulnerable state of the nation or to allege a single minister for thesame. 3.3.1. Role of Government: The list had many well-known ministers like Dayanidhi Maran(Union cabinet minister for textiles), P. Chidambaram(Union cabinet ministers for home affairs), Andimuthu Raja (Unioncabinet minister for communication & information technology), Kanimozhi Aravindhan(Member of Rajya Sabha) and also many renowned bureaucrats like Siddharhta Behura,Pradip Baijal, R K Chandolia. Dilemma faced by Media: It is medias duty to show the truth to the public, moreover it also considered as a trustworthy source which helps in creating awareness regarding the actual happenings in the world.The Media persons accused faced the ethical dilemma of whether to diligently follow theduties of a journalist and uncover the real truth or be loyal to their friends. 3.4.1. Role of media The 2G spectrum scam, which has snowballed into a major controversy involving Indian politicians and businessmen, became hotter for journalists to handle when it allegedlyinvo lved two of their senior members.Media sources such as OPEN and Outlook reported that two senior journalists Barkha Dutt(group editor of NDTV) and Vir Sanghvi (editorial director of Hindustan Times) knew thatcorporate lobbyist Nira Radia was influencing the decisions of appointment of telecomminister. Radia wanted A Raja to be made telecom minister. The two magazines made publicthe telephone conversations between Nira Radia, Barkha Dutt & Vir Sanghvi. Radia's phoneswere being tapped by the Income Tax Department. Critics allege that Barkha Dutt and Vir Sanghvi knew about nexus between government and the media industry but still theysupported this corrupt activity and suppressed news reporting the discovery of the corrupt practice.In November 2010, OPEN magazine carried a story which reported transcripts of some of thetelephone conversations of Nira Radia (a political lobbyist) with senior journalists, politicians, and corporate houses, many of whom have denied the allegations. The CentralBureau of Investigation has announced that they have 5,851 recordings of phoneconversations by Radia, some of which outline Radia's attempts to broker deals in relation tothe 2G spectrum sale. The tapes appear to demonstrate how Radia attempted to use somemedia persons to influence the decision to appoint A. Raja as telecom minister. Vir Sanghvi, editorial director of Indian national daily Hindustan Times and Indiastelevision news channel NDTVs group editor Barkha Dutt

are apparently featured in thetranscripts. They are heard promising to fix things for Radia, who is known to be close to the sackedminister A Raja, and her clients besides her political cronies.While Sanghvi allegedly took notes from Radia on what he could point out in his weeklySunday column of Hindustan Times even as Radia asked him to write against RelianceGroup's Anil Ambani and the high court decision on the gas pricing issue.Barkha Dutt had allegedly assured Radia of getting ruling Congress part ys general secretaryGhulam Nabi Azad to talk to the supremo of his partys chief ally in the governmentM.Karunanidhi to fix portfolios for the ally according to wishes of Karunanidhis daughter Kanimozhi.One thing to be noticed in this case was, initially the news gained prominence followingsustained pressure on social networking sites Twitter and Facebook against an attempted blackout orchestrated by many prominent Indian TV channels and newspaper. Initially, onlyhandful of newspaper like Deccan Herald and The Indian Express wrote about the tapes.Some newspaper like HT Media, mint and NDTV told that the authenticity of thesetranscripts cannot be ascertained. Not Touching Corporate Biggies: Now media is deliberately trying to highlight a fewnames like those of Shahid Balwa, A Raja, Kanimozhi, Sanjay Chandra, Karim Morani, andVinod Goenka while not touching corporate biggies such as Tatas and Ambanis. It is quiteclear that in this 2G spectrum case, only a few are conspired to be indicted in the case whileothers are clearly kept out. Instead of providing valuable insights, the media is trying to become the judiciary. Themedia has targeted easy scapegoats, revolving their stories around a selected few becauseeven they know that it is difficult for them to target certain big names like the Tatas, Ambanisand Ruias. It is a well-known fact that the trial for 2G Spectrum case is going on, and nobodycan be proved guilty unless and until it is proved in court, but, without taking it into account,our media has started blaming people and highlighting a only few names without mentioningthe rest of the suspects.