Tata denies using strong words against govt

Tata Sons today denied that group Chairman Ratan Tata has used terms such as "venal" business environment or accused the government of "inaction" in media interviews.

"Tata Sons clarifies that in Mr Ratan N Tata's interview with (a leading British financial) daily, he spoke about coherence in implementation of government policy rather than "lashes into the PM", "rapping India", "warning government of inaction" or "venal business environment", as has been reported in the daily and other media," said a statement from Tata Sons. "These are terms used by the publications and not not by Mr Tata in any manner," it said.

"Tata Sons is surprised that reputed media entities have sensationalised the observations, without taking into cognisance the tone, tenor and context of the interview," the statement said.

The statement said Tata has always supported Prime Minister Manmohan Singh even when there was mass criticism of him and the last thing he would wish to do is to be a critic of the prime minister as has been reported.

Releasing excerpts of the interview with the British daily, the statement said Tata was asked why he still thought that "the way india was being governed made it very difficult to grow business here and therefore you felt that Tata and Indian companies should look abroad."

In the answer he said, "Sometimes the issue is that different agencies of the government, different constituencies in the government, have almost contradictory interpretations of the law or different interpretations of what should be done.

"By that I mean there are differences between the Centre and the state in some cases.

So you have a Central policy that is announced, on paper sounds very exciting but at the same state level is very difficult to operate.