BANGALORE, INDIA: The sound and fury over the 2G spectrum scam has hit the corporate playing field with Ratan Tata batting for the government and young entrepreneur Rajeev Chandrasekhar counter attacking him.
The mudslinging began with the open letter written by Chandrasekhar to Ratan Tata, to which Tata wrote a strong reply (or is it weak as alleged by Chandrasekhar?) pointing fingers towards the NDA regime under BJP and also the 'GSM Lobby'.
Soon came the reply by Chandrasekhar, which said that the entire issue needs to be “settled in full public view”.
“Dear Mr Tata, I welcome your joining this debate. It is an important one and needs to be settled in full public view. Unfortunately, your response is a typical one that ducks the main issues and instead attempts to shoot the messenger!,” read the letter published by Hindustan Times.
The letter criticized Tata for being “intensely personal... most unbecoming of the House of Tatas” in his reply. Chandrasekhar also said that he would “rebut your allegations, claims and innuendo - chapter and verse in the public domain”. So the, media has enough to chase now!
In his response to Rajeev Chandrasekhar's allegations Ratan Tata had also said that his company went for an external PR service provider, when it found under attack in a media campaign to defame the ethics and value systems of the group which held it apart from others in India.
Justifying the decision to appoint Nira Radia's PR firm, he also had said the campaign against Tatas was instituted and sustained through an unholy nexus between certain corporates and the media through selected journalists. It was the very name of Nira Radia that put Tata in soup and he even wanted the apex court to prevent the media from using the so-called telecom intercepts of the alleged conversation that Radia had with many journalists and others that opened a can of worms, literally.
When we read it together with P Sainath's revelations on 'paid news', the entire episode gets a curious turn!
In a sense Rajeev Chandrasekhar's allegation that Tata's defences were weak is somewhat justified. And that is what an average television viewer would have felt while watching his interview aired by NDTV a few days back too. But, what made the young entrepreneur to attack Tata? Is it his love for democracy, justice.....? Or is it the BJP factor as alleged by Ratan Tata? And, will this corporate war subdue the political war over the scam?
Interestingly, all these happened at a time when the CBI raided the houses of Raja, his parents and even some associates. But when the corporates take a new role in the spectrum war,
Now, with the names of more corporates and journalists being dragged into the controversy the politicians may heave a sigh of relief, and maybe a few journalists would withdraw to a meaningful silence.
And the million dollar question is as to who will benefit from this uproar? The corporate giants or the politicians? Of course, not the ordinary cellphone user for whom every penny counts.
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