Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata on Thursday hit back at Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar, saying that allegations made by him were to help the BJP under whose regime many of the flip flops in the telecom policy had occurred. Mr Tata also hit out at GSM players alleging that they under their association COAI opposed the adoption of a technologically neutral regime in the country which has led to the tremendous growth in the telecom sector.
Earlier this week, Mr Chandrasekhar in an open letter had alleged that Tatas were the biggest beneficiaries of out-of-turn spectrum allocation.
Replying to the letter, Mr Tata said, “Your affiliation with a particular political party is well known and it appears that their political aspiration and their endeavour to embarrass the Prime Minister and the ruling party may well have been the motivation behind your letter and the insinuations which you make. We should all note that many of the flip flops in the telecom policy occurred during the BJP regime.” The Tata group chairman favoured an investigation in the 2G spectrum allocation from 2001 when the BJP led NDA was in power. Mr Tata alleged that the switch over from auction to revenue sharing system for telecom operators during the BJP regime could have caused a loss of `50,000 crores going by the parameters adopted by government auditor CAG on 2G spectrum allocation.
He said that the recent policy broke the powerful cartel which had been holding back competition and delaying implementation of policies. Mr Tata claimed that CAG has not ascribed any value to 48 new GSM licences issued to incumbents during 2004-08 and 65MHz of additional spectrum even though CAG was supposed to cover the period from 2003.
Mr Tata alleged that Mr Chandrasekhar was attacking him as he had not supported him to oppose technology neutral policy adopted by the government.
“This had angered you and the other operators who were not interested in a level playing field and lobbied aggressively through COAI to ensure that a technologically agnostic environment would not come to pass,” he added.
Mr Tata said that Tata Teleservices has been severely disadvantaged by certain powerful politically connected operators who have wilfully subverted policy under various telecom ministers. Tata Teleservices is awaiting allotment of spectrum in Delhi and 39 key districts for about three years, he added.
Reacting to Mr Tata’s allegation, Mr Chandrasekhar alleged that he was diverting the issues raised by him in the open letter. “I think either he has not understood what I was trying to say in the letter... I have actually agreed with the three points he has raised in his interview. I have only pointed out to him that the conduct of his company is in variance from what he says so the main issue is the gap between what he says, his probity...and the conduct of his company which he has not addressed and that is where matter is,” said Mr Chandrasekhar. Countering Mr Tata’s statement, the BJP said he is “no judge” and his views will not be given much importance as he himself was a “beneficiary” of the UPA’s telecom policy. Referring to allegations levelled by Mr Tata, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said that “it is like spit and run” and demanded that a JPC be formed on the 2G scam issue so that people can depose before it. “These allegations is like spit and run. Somebody makes an allegations and then runs away. Why not form a JPC, which can call Ratan Tata, Rajiv Chandrashekhar and all those the Committee deems should be called to probe the scam,” Ms Swaraj said.