Sibal hunts for political points in Tata, Chandrasekhar spat

NEW DELHI - Communications Minister Kapil Sibal Thursday came out in support of Tata group chief Ratan Tata who has said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government had first changed the norms for award of airwaves to telecom firms in 1999, the notional loss of which could be as much as $11 billion.

Reacting to Tata’s letter to fellow industrialist and lawmaker Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the communications minister said it clearly shows that the statement has been made with some knowledge and spells out why the opposition does not want a debate in parliament.

“Ratan Tata must be making these disclosures with some knowledge for sure. The point is the opposition and primarily the BJP is not interested in the vindication of law,” Sibal told reporters in another twist to the alleged second generation (2G) telecom spectrum scam.

“They are only interested in stalling parliament. This is a party we have to coin a new English word for,” Sibal said, reacting to Tata’s rejoinder on an open letter written to him by Chandrasekhar, once asociated with the BPL group that had a telecom licence.

“But what I find today is very unfortunate. Some operators are at war with others. This is because at any given point of time they felt that they had been discriminated against,” said the minister.

Tata had said in his rejoinder that it was an empowered group of ministers led by BJP leader Jaswant Singh that had changed the norms for award of telecom licences from an auction process to the revenue-sharing mode — which exists even today.

He also sought to draw a parallel with the latest report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) that said the government’s policy on airwaves in 2008 had caused a loss of Rs.58,000 crore ($12.8 billion) to Rs.1.76 lakh crore ($40 billion) to the exchequer.

This had led to the ouster of A. Raja as communications minister last month.

“lf a hypothetical amount was to be calculated similar to one that has been done in the CAG report, at that point of time (in 1999), the loss to the exchequer would be about Rs.50,000 crore ($11 billion) and the exchequer would have been deprived of this,” Tata said

“Realistically, however, the revenue-share system would have recouped some amount over time and this important change most probably has been responsible for the greater growth of the industry as it enabled tariffs to be reduced,” he said.

“I support the ongoing investigations and believe that the period of investigation be extended to 2001 for the nation to know the real beneficiaries of the ad hoc policy-making and implementation.”

Chandrasekhar had said in his letter to Ratan Tata that his group was a beneficiary of the present government’s “flip-flop” on telecom policy and that he had also chose to accept the benefits of this despite blatant violations and distortions.

“I am personally aware because I led the fight against it and remember being immensely disappointed at the Tata Groups remarkably self-serving position,” said Chandrasekhar’s letter, which Ratan Tata responded to with a rejoinder.

Amid all this, parliament was adjourned for the 20th successive day Thursday, as the opposition was unrelenting in demand for a probe by lawmakers from the two houses into the alleged 2G spectrum scam.