TTSL mum on Chandrasekhar's call for debate

Tata Teleservices (TTSL) today dodged a challenge by Rajeev Chandrasekhar, industrialist-cum member of Parliament, to its Group chairman, Ratan Tata, for a public debate on the spectrum allotment controversy. Instead, it sent a letter reiterating its earlier stand on the issues he had raised.

The company also said it would not, herewith, respond to any further press statements by Chandrasekhar.

Yesterday, Chandrasekhar, who used to run a telecom company, said the war of words in the form of letters between them gave a false impression of a corporate war. It would also distract the media and public from the ongoing investigation into the spectrum scam, he had said.

TTSL’s press statement said Chandrasekhar had not read their detailed, point-wise, rebuttal sent last week and he was repeating the same “falsehoods”.

Chandrasekhar said he stood by his earlier statements. His spokesman said: “He does not wish to engage in any discussion with Tata Teleservices. His debate is with Ratan Tata and will remain at that level. Any grievances that Tata Tele has against incumbent GSM operators and other dual technology operators needs to be addressed with the government, and not him.”

Adding: “Chandrasekhar stands by every statement he has made about Tatas benefiting from the various policy flip-flops and the role of lobbyists in this regard. He reiterates his invitation for an open debate on the issue.”

Chandrasekhar had also questioned the role of Pradeep Baijal, a former telecom regulator who is now a consultant with the Tata Group. He’d said Baijal had made recommendations favouring the Tatas. TTSL said the latter had limited powers as head of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

“The role of Trai is to make recommendations, and it is entirely up to the DoT (Department of Telecom), the final decision-maker, to accept the recommendations or not to accept them. Baijal’s recommendation was a generic recommendation in favor of a technology-agnostic telecom policy and not specific to Tata Teleservices,” the company said.

Adding: “The real beneficiaries of DoT’s inconsistent and arbitrary policies were incumbent GSM operators who were issued 48 GSM licenses and allocated 65 MHz of additional spectrum free of charge, beyond the contracted spectrum, between 2004 and 2008.”