AAP 'expose' hits out at BJP's Prasad, Cong's Tewari

NEW DELHI: Aam Aadmi Party has accused communications minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and former information and broadcasting minister of Congress Manish Tewari of being on retainership of Reliance companies even as both were part of a joint parliamentary committee on telecom issues formed in 2011.
Calling it a case of conflict of interest, senior AAP functionary Prashant Bhushan said Tewari was being paid Rs 5-6 lakh each month by Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) from June 2010.In January 2012, Tewari wrote to Parimal Nathwani, a Rajya Sabha member and senior functionary in Reliance, to get his contract extended till June 30, 2015. The contract got extended till June 30, 2014. “Meanwhile, in October 2012, Tewari became information and broadcasting minister. We would like to know whether this contract continued. Also, Tewari was part of a JPC on telecom issues which probed the 2G telecom scam,” said Bhushan.
Prasad, he added, had also been receiving retainership fees from Fine Tech Corporation Private Ltd, a company of Reliance group owned by Mukesh Ambani. “The invoice raised by Prasad on the company from April 2013 to March 2014 is Rs 84 lakh. The company in question has a share capital of Rs 1.24 lakh which indicates that the company was probably doing no work. Its three directors are also directors in various other companies of Reliance Group. Meanwhile, Prasad has held the law portofolio from May 26 this year till November 10, along with telecom,” said Bhushan.
Both Prasad and Tiwari denied the allegations. The communications minister trashed the “conflict of interest” charge as “fake and misleading”, asserting that “he has never given any advice or appeared for Reliance Industries”. He accepted that he had appeared for Finetech Commercials Private Limited, but asserted that it is a “different corporate entity”. “It is common for senior lawyers to give legal advice or retainership to companies. However, I terminated all my professional relationships before taking over as a minister. In fact, with the Finetech Commercials, it ended in March 2014 itself; that is, nearly two months before I became a minister,” said Prasad.
He also said he stopped practising as a lawyer after becoming the deputy leader of BJP in Rajya Sabha and was “in the forefront of exposing the irregularities in the allocation of spectrum and telecom licences under the previous government and gave a note of dissent when attempts were made to conceal facts about the 2G scam”.
Reacting to the charges against him, Tewari clarified that his “professional legal relationship” with Reliance Industries predates his election to Parliament by a decade. “A day after being sworn in as a minister on October 28, 2012, I surrendered my licence to practise which was suspended with effect from October 30, 2012. A day later, our office wrote to RIL terminating the legal arrangement. With regard to the second averment, I wrote to the chairperson of the JPC on March 21, 2011, declaring that I had represented telecom companies including Reliance Infocomm during the remit period being investigated by JPC. The matter was considered in the first meeting of the JPC and since none of the members saw a conflict of interest, the matter was formally closed and I was permitted to continue as member of JPC,” he said.
Saying that Prasad being the telecom minister amounted to conflict of interest because of his relationship with the Reliance group, another AAP leader Yogendra Yadav said Reliance is a major telecom player and many questions have been raised on its improprieties in the 4G matter. “The department of telecom has strongly refuted CAG’s observation that RIL and Nahata family-owned Infotel Broadband Services Pvt Ltd, a company that was subsequently acquired by RIL, were shown undue favours resulting in a loss of more than Rs 20,000 crore to the government. As per our information, Prasad has been sitting over a notice that needs to be issued to Reliance Jio with respect to the 4G case for the past three months. Before becoming union minister, Prasad was a member of the JPC which examined matters relating to allocation and pricing of telecom licences and spectrum. He should resign immediately as he cannot deal with any office whose subject matter is of business interest to Reliance. It is a clear case of conflict of interest and gross impropriety,” Yadav said.
Prasad, however, rejected the charges. “Every decision regarding Reliance 4-G issue will be taken objectively on merit and in the light of the final report of the CAG,” said the minister who enjoys the backing of his party and ministerial colleagues.