Tata strikes back, wants 2001 BJP rule under 2G probe
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New Delhi: Tata Group supremo Ratan Tata today strongly came out in support of the government's 2G spectrum allocation policy saying it broke the powerful cartel, and backed the probe covering the period since 2001 when BJP-led NDA was in power.
He also hit out at BJP saying 'many of the flip-flops in the telecom policy occurred during the BJP regime'.
Tata's suggestion for extending the period of probe came within a day of the Supreme Court seeking to widen the ambit of CBI probe into the 2G spectrum scam to cover the policies introduced in 2001 by the NDA regime.
On the allegation that group company Tata Teleservices (TTSL) was a beneficiary of out-of-turn allocation of spectrum, Tata said that the true position is that TTSL has not, "I repeat not" been advantaged in any way by Raja or any earlier minister.
Taking a strong exception to an open letter written to him by former telecom entrepreneur Chandrasekhar, an independent MP elected with BJP-JD(S) support four years ago, Tata said this was politically motivated and was aimed at embarrassing Prime Minister Manohan Singh and the ruling party.
Chandrasekhar was the past president of Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), the lobby GSM operators. GSM one of the two technology platforms, the other being CDMA on which TTSL was offering services prior to the use of dual technology came in 2008.
The leading GSM operators are Bharti, Vodafone, Idea, Aircel and several new operators such as Uninor, while the CDMA space was mainly held by TTSL and Reliance Communications before both of them were granted GSM spectrum.
"Your affiliation to a particular political party is well-known and it appears that political aspirations and their endeavour to embarrass the Prime Minister and the ruling party may well have been the motivation behind your letter," Tata told Chandrasekhar.
Alleging that some media houses were also partial in the coverage of the entire issue in deference to the owners who were the real gainers in the telecom sector, Tata said Chandrasekhar had kept the current trend of 'attempted character assassination through widespread media publicity couched in pain and concern for upholding ethics and values'.
Taking the powerful GSM operators head on for what he termed as holding of spectrum free of cost, Tata said, "Recent policy (allocation of licences in 2008) broke the powerful cartel which has been holding back competition and delaying the implementation of policies'.
He said the changing policy from auction to revenue sharing for telecom operators during the BJP regime could have cost a loss of about Rs 50,000 crore to the exchequer if calculated on the basis as done in the recent CAG report that said the 2G spectrum allocation scam cost Rs 1.76 lakh crore.
Detailing the developments in the telcom sector during the NDA government led by Atal Behari Vajpayee that he had asked the then prime minister for an 'open and transparent' process.
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