What to say here!

Graft grounded Tatas’return to skies

Ratan Was Uncomfortable With ‘Bribing’ Minister
Our Bureau & Agencies MUMBAI
THE main reason why the Tata group failed to start a private airline about 15 years ago surfaced on Monday when chairman Ratan Tata said a bribe demand had scuttled the venture.
Speaking at a function in Dehra Dun on Monday, Mr Tata said he didn’t re-enter the airline business, which was to be in a joint venture with Singapore Airlines, as he was not comfortable with the idea of bribing 15 crore to a minister.
“We approached three prime ministers also. But an individual thwarted our efforts to form the airline,” Mr Tata said, recalling how he spurned the suggestion. “A fellow industrialist had said: ‘You are stupid people. The minister was asking for 15 crore. Why didn’t you pay the money?“
CM Ibrahim was the aviation minister in 1996, when the Tatas had initiated plans to re-enter aviation. Mr Tata’s predecessor, JRD Tata, had set up the first commercial airline in India, called ‘Tata Airlines’, in the 1930s, which was taken over by the government in the 1950s and renamed Air India.
Ibrahim clears the air, says won’t file defamation case
THE Tata group’s difficulties with Mr Ibrahim are well known, but none of the protagonists has spoken about the matter in public.
India allows foreign investors such as private equity funds to own 49% of a domestic aviation company, but investment by foreign carriers is banned, a rule many consider bizarre. The ban was introduced in the mid-1990s.
Though the events Mr Tata was describing occurred many years ago, the remarks created a minor media frenzy when television channels — which have been gorging themselves on the alleged misdeeds of former telecom minister A Raja — started ‘flashing’ the news.
A key minister in Deve Gowda’s government, Mr Ibrahim responded to Mr Tata’s allegation by saying he had stopped the Tata project as it would have resulted in a loss to the government.
“It would have meant gifting away 4,000 acres of government land to the Tatas at a low rate,” Mr Ibrahim told television channel TIMES NOW. His remarks appeared not to be directly related to the aborted airline. Instead, he was talking about an alleged offer by the Tatas to build a new airport in Bangalore.
The Tatas had supposedly wanted to build the airport under the build-operate-own model while Mr Ibrahim says he preferred an alternative method known as build-operate-transfer. In the second case, the airport’s ownership eventually reverts to the government.
In other interviews, Mr Ibrahim attributed his blocking of the Tatas’ aviation plans to the presence of Singapore Airlines. Coming from a family of freedom fighters, he wanted to keep foreigners away from the aviation sector, he said.
\Mr Ibrahim also clarified that he was not filing defamation charges as Mr Tata had not named him as the bribe-seeker.
In a statement issued on Monday evening, an external corporate communications agency representing the Tata group clarified that Mr Tata was merely recounting a conversation with another industrialist. The 72-year-old head of the Tata group was not describing an actual episode and was not accusing anyone of asking for a bribe, it added.
“Mr Tata in no way was in agreement to the fact that he was asked for a bribe by any minister,” the a statement said. The figure of 15 crore was the personal opinion of the industrialist whom Mr Tata did not name.
The much-publicised alliance with Singapore Airlines to form a private airline from a group that had given India its first aviation company suffered a setback when the Tatas walked away from the deal citing long delays.
The Tata decision had raised questions then, with many senior group executives offering varying reasons for the aborted venture.
Jet Airways, one of India’s top private sector airlines, has long opposed investment by foreign airlines in the aviation sector. Two Gulfbased airlines once held 40% of Jet’s equity, but had to divest their stake after the government banned FDI by overseas carriers. Mr Ibrahim, nor anyone from Jet, has ever been investigated or charged in relation to the failed Tata bid to enter aviation.
Responding to questions about how he succeeded without compromising ethics and values after delivering a lecture on ‘India in 21st Century: Opportunities and Challenges’, Mr Tata said: “I did not want to go to bed knowing well that I set up an airlines by paying Rs 15 crore.”
After taking over control of the group, Mr Tata had tried thrice to enter aviation, but in vain. The group approached the government in 1995, 1997 and in 2001, but could not get an approval.
In 2001, the BJP government was in power when the Tatas and Singapore Airlines withdrew as sole bidders for their joint bid for Air India, the state-run airline, citing political opposition. Earlier in 1995, and subsequently in 2000, the consortium had made concerted efforts to take a stake in Air India, but the controversies surrounding the disinvestment process and unions’ opposition prevented the process.

My Comments:
What to say here! A very very reputed business gr like Tata is taken for ride then what to say about the beurocracy?Tata tried in 1995,1997 and 2001 and they were not suceesful.That is the irony of India.
Tata is a gr who always thinks ahead of others and that we can see here that Ratan Tata tried 3 times but FAILED.
I had always felt that it is the business-man who are making us proud with the Cos like Infosys, Wipro,Ril Ind,TCS, Tisco, Tata Motors , Sterlite Ind and many more .............
With all these type of bottlenecks they have made inroads and chattered their own path of success and Kudos to them for doing it with all the constrainst which keeps on coming moving up.
Many must have given bribe and many must have done without doing it but they kept flag flying of India in Internatioanl arena and these business-man needs all accolades for that.
Can anyone think, with such a poor political background we can prosper what we have been?No way! All credit goes to Industrialist doing their job even after all drawbacks.
Just imagine, if we want a simple copy of documents(7-A and 8-12) of a house or land and we go to the talati's office then wehave to give few hundreds rupees to talati otherwise he will say he has no time and he will have to look at records which are very old and will take time and once you give few hundreds rupees you get it immidiately.
I have seen and heard that even the name of the holder gets changed if we bribe someone and the house or land or property names gets changed............
If Mukesh Ambani has built the biggest and most expensive house in Mumbai, he still derserve it as he gives employment and earn billions of dollar of exchequer for the country.But what these politicians gives to country?They just take bribes and makes money while doing nothing.
I have already written on Madhu Koda and Sharad Power case and now A Raja case has come up which IT people says government has lost Rs 1,76,000 cr in revenue!
That is HUGE...........