'Divest Maran of Communications Ministry' : BJP urges PM

New Delhi, Apr 27 (UNI) The Bharatiya Janata Party today demanded divesting Dayanidhi Maran of the Communications Ministry portfolio in connection with his alleged threat issued to Tata Telecom supremo Ratan Tata that he would 'finish off' its venture if his company did not hand over its Direct To Home (DTH) project to the Maran family.

Reacting to the news reports to this effect, BJP Spokesman Prakash Javadekar said the incident "showed how the UPA constituents did not hesitate to use their power to terrorise to achieve their goals." Following the threat the Tatas had complained to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh but he was unable to deal with the Minister because of his close liaison with Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

"This expose shames the Minister and the government. This is not just a case of corruption but an extortion and the system should be saved from being discredited", he said.

Quoting the news reports, Prakash Javadekar said that Mr Maran and his brother Kalanidhi Maran who runs the 'Sun TV'- the Tamil news and entertainment channel in Tamil Nadu- had sought one third ownership in the company and in the management of the Tata DTH venture running into hundreds of crores and the Tatas had refused to comply. Thereafter the Minister allegedly called up Mr Tata to threaten that the government would destroy their telecom business and implemented the threat by stopping all clearances to Tata Telecom, Mr Javadekar said.

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