FRONT PAGE | Tuesday, October 20, 2009 | Email | Print | 
Chidambaram, Karuna strike Telenor deal
J Gopikrishnan | New Delhi
Under DMK pressure, Govt gives go-ahead to telco operating in Pak, Bangladesh
In a controversial move, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Monday gave clearance to the Norwegian telecom giant Telenor to acquire 74 per cent stake in Unitech group of companies which had benefited from dubious 2G spectrum allocation last year.
For the past 18 months, Home Ministry, Intelligence Bureau and RAW have been vehemently objecting granting clearance to Telenor’s takeover of Unitech’s wireless ventures, citing security concerns because the Norwegian company is operating in Pakistan and Bangladesh. The Foreign Investment Promotion Board had many times deferred the matter due to the Home Ministry’s objections.
According to highly placed officials, the Home Ministry diluted its objections by placing a ‘flimsy’ clause. “As per the new clause, Telenor’s Pakistan operating company staff and former staff will not be permitted to work in India. But we don’t know how to enforce this rule. How can we check who are working and who had worked in Pakistan? We have to rely on what Telenor declares,” they said. Norway’s Telenor has obtained CCEA clearance through its Singapore-based company, focusing on Asia operations.
The move came a day after Home Minister P Chidambaram had a long meeting with DMK patriarch and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on Sunday.
The Telenor issue was highly ‘significant’ for Karunanidhi since his handpicked man A Raja was involved in the dubious allotment of 2G spectrum licence to Swan and Unitech. According to DMK leaders, during his meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi in Delhi on December 4 last year, Karunanidhi had taken up the issue of clearance of Telenor files pending with the Home Ministry.
On that day, Karunanidhi had led a multi-party delegation to Delhi to present the “plight” of Sri Lankan Tamils. According to DMK leaders, after meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the morning, Karunanidhi drove to 10 Janpath. “None of the members of the multi-party delegation, who met the Prime Minister, was in the meeting with Sonia Gandhi. The then Union Minister TR Baalu was asked to go out after the photo session. Only his daughter Kanimozhi was present in the meeting with Sonia Gandhi.
The controversies started when Unitech, a real estate company, bagged 2G spectrum allocation for Rs 1651 crore and offloaded its 60 per cent shares to Telenor for Rs 6120 crore within weeks in mid-2008. Unitech had applied for licences in several names - Unitech Infrastructure, Unitech Builders and Estates, Aska Projects, Nahan Properties, Hudson Properties, Volga Properties, Adonis Projects and Azare Properties among them. They were able to merge all their licences when Telecom Minister Raja signed another dubious notification, which is presently under CVC and CBI scanner.
Later, Unitech formed eight separate companies viz. Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu), Unitech Wireless (North), Unitech Wireless (South), Unitech Wireless (Kolkata), Unitech Wireless (Delhi), Unitech Wireless (East), Unitech Wireless (Mumbai), Unitech Wireless (West).
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