A. Raja

A. Raja, 2005

A. Raja ( Andimuthu Raja ; Tamil : ஆ. ராசா ; born May 10, 1963 in Velur , Perambalur District , Tamil Nadu ) is an Indian politician of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam regional party (DMK). Between 1999 and 2010 he held various ministerial offices in the all-India governments of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh . On November 14, 2010, he was forced to resign from his post as Minister of Communications and Information Technology due to a corruption scandal.

biography

A. Raja was born on May 10, 1963 in the village of Velur in what is now the Perambalur district of Tamil Nadu state. He belongs to the Dalit (casteless). He completed his studies with a master's degree in law. During his studies, Raja came into contact with politics and joined the DMK. He is considered a talented speaker and has a great interest in Tamil literature, which is why he was soon traded as a young hope in the party.

In 1996, A. Raja from the Perambalur constituency, which was reserved for Dalit candidates, was elected for the first time as a DMK candidate in the Lok Sabha , the all-Indian parliament. In the new elections in 1998 he lost the mandate to the candidate of the AIADMK , but was able to recapture the constituency in the new election in 1999 and defend it in the next election in 2004. After the constituency of Perambalur was converted into a general constituency, Raja successfully ran in the 2009 elections in the constituency of Nilgiris, which is reserved for Dalit candidates .

From 1999 to 2003 A. Raja was Minister for Rural Development and Health in the BJP- led Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government . After the DMK left the electoral alliance with the BJP and joined the government coalition led by the Congress Party , Raja became Environment Minister under Manmohan Singh in 2004 . When the DMK politician Dayanidhi Maran resigned from the post of Minister for Communication and Information Technology in 2007, A. Raja took over the office and also held it in the Manmohan Singh II cabinet .

Corruption scandal

A. Raja resigned from his position as Minister of Communications and Information Technology on November 14, 2010. The reason for the resignation was the forthcoming investigation into a scandal surrounding the award of 2G mobile communications licenses in India. As communications minister, he was responsible for granting licenses. Immediately after he was sworn in in 2007 as Minister, he set new guidelines. The ministry is said to have issued 85 of 122 licenses contrary to its own guidelines. They are said to have been given to telecom groups such as Reliance Industries , partly through straw companies, at the price of 2001, that is, well below market value. Some of the licenses were also sold abroad. The Indian state is said to have lost almost twenty-two to thirty billion euros. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh came under pressure from allegations that he wanted to sit out and delay the investigation into the scandal.

On February 2, 2011, A. Raja and two officials from his ministry were arrested by the Indian Federal Police CBI for the 2G scandal . After more than a year in detention, Raja was released on May 15, 2012 on bail.

Web links

Commons : A. Raja - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Profile A. Rajas on the side of Lok Sabha
Christoph Hein: From the marionette to the pawn sacrifice. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . November 25, 2010, Retrieved November 25, 2010 (Portrait of Andimuthu Raja).
Syed Muthahar, T. Ramakrishnan: A. Raja: meteoric rise, and then the fall. In: The Hindu . February 3, 2011, retrieved on February 6, 2011 (English, portrait of Andimuthu Raja).

Individual evidence

↑ Andimuthu is the father's name. The patronymic and, as usual in South India, is abbreviated in front of the name, Raja is the nickname. Family names are not common in South India.
↑ ^a ^b Christine Möllhoff: 30 billion given away. In: Frankfurter Rundschau . November 19, 2010, accessed November 19, 2010 .
↑ Georg Blume: Cashed up with cell phone licenses. In: the daily newspaper . November 17, 2010, accessed November 19, 2010 .
↑ Tagesschau.de, accessed on November 24, 2010 ( Memento from November 27, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
↑ Vinay Kumar: CBI arrests former Telecom Minister A. Raja. In: The Hindu . February 2, 2011, accessed February 6, 2011 .
↑ Raja gets bail, walks out of Tihar jail. In: The Hindu . May 15, 2012, accessed May 16, 2012 .

personal data
SURNAME	Raja, A.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Raja, Andimuthu
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Indian politician
DATE OF BIRTH	May 10, 1963
PLACE OF BIRTH	Perambalur

[1] Andimuthu is the father's name. The patronymic and, as usual in South India, is abbreviated in front of the name, Raja is the nickname. Family names are not common in South India.

[verschenkt-2] Christine Möllhoff: 30 billion given away. In: Frankfurter Rundschau . November 19, 2010, accessed November 19, 2010 .

[Mobilfunk-3] Georg Blume: Cashed up with cell phone licenses. In: the daily newspaper . November 17, 2010, accessed November 19, 2010 .

[4] Tagesschau.de, accessed on November 24, 2010 ( Memento from November 27, 2010 in the Internet Archive )

[5] Vinay Kumar: CBI arrests former Telecom Minister A. Raja. In: The Hindu . February 2, 2011, accessed February 6, 2011 .

[6] Raja gets bail, walks out of Tihar jail. In: The Hindu . May 15, 2012, accessed May 16, 2012 .