Tatas got permit out of turn: MP
Dec. 16: Continuing his war of words with Mr Ratan Tata, the Rajya Sabha MP, Mr Rajeev Chandrasekhar, on Thursday alleged that contrary to claims of probity, the Tata group got spectrum allocated out of turn through change in policy to allow dual technology.
Responding to recent letter by Mr Tata that he was acting at the behest of some political interests to embarrass the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, and the government and lobbied for a change in telecom policy that helped big GSM players, Mr Chandrasekhar also questioned the former telecom regulator, Mr Pradeep Baijal’s role in allegedly benefiting the Tatas.
In a veiled attack against Tatas’ PR consultant, Ms Niira Radia, whose taped conversations with him prompted Mr Ratan Tata to take a public position and recourse to legal remedies, the MP asked authorities to keep focus of investigation on scam to weed out the lobbyists from the telecom sector.
Mr Ratan Tata had taken strong exception to leakage and publication of the tape containing what he termed as private conversations and also talked about the erosion in governance.
Reacting to the position of probity and transparency taken by Mr Tata, Mr Chandrasekhar had alleged that the conglomerate itself was beneficiary of policy changes, provoking Mr Tata to issue a strong rebuttal.
“I completely stand by every word that I have written in my letter... Tata had raised the issue of flip-flop of policy, I would like to ask how did the Tata companies get UASL licences in new circles without going through the auction process (in 2003),” Mr Chandrasekhar said.
Mr Tata in his letter had asserted that his group company Tata Teleservices had not been advantaged in any way by the former telecom minister, Mr A. Raja, or any earlier minister.
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