Ratan Tata replies to Rajeev Chandrasekhar

Mumbai, Dec 9: Ratan Tata replied to the open letter by MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar and has lambasted all allegations against him. The Tata's was accused by Rajeev Chadrasekhar of benefiting from the out-of-turn allocation and also faced flak for poorly dealing with the 2G spectrum scam and his alleged involvement with Nira Radia, the corporate lobbyist.

Ratan Tata in his letter (Read Ratan Tata's reply to MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar here) says that Rajeev approached him in July 2002 and “lobbied for a technology agnostic environment" and wanted to sign a letter on this. He has clarified his stand on the 2G controversy through the letter as well. He claims that Tata Teleservices Ltd. (TTSL) has not benefited in any way either by A Raja or by any other minister. In fact Ratan Tata claims that TTSL was the only company to respond to queries by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and returned spectrum when asked for.

He has also accused the NDA govt by saying that the maximum number of flip-flops and policy deviations by telecom companies happened during the NDA govt regime. He also pronounced that the same group of telecom operators have “subverted government policy".

Read MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar's open letter to Ratan Tata here.

TTSL has also refuted the accusations by Rajeev Chandrasekhar and in its own reply said, “Tata Teleservices Limited has always followed government policy and regulations and has applied for any service only after the Government has allowed the same. Tata Teleservices Limited applied for dual-technology only after it was announced on 19 October 2007, and was the first and only legitimate applicant, but still the Company is yet to get spectrum in Delhi and 39 other key districts in 9 telecom Circles. Tata Teleservices Limited even followed the policy of WLL in letter and in spirit, and shifted to UASL only after the policy was announced by the Government".

Ratan Tata has with this letter triggered a corporate war of sorts and accused Rajeev of attempting to embarass the government. Rajeev's political lenience towards the BJP was also attributed to the reason for such an open letter.

OneIndia News