File photo of Kumar Mangalam Birla
Billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla, who met Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Friday evening, said they had discussed the first information report or FIR filed against him by the CBI in the coal scam "among other issues."
Mr Birla, the soft-spoken and media-shy chairman of the $40 billion Aditya Birla Group, avoided reporters as he arrived at the Finance Ministry in Delhi's North Block, but spoke to them after the meeting, saying, "I have done nothing wrong. I am not worried about the FIR."
Three days ago, the Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI named Mr Birla, his company Hindalco and former Coal Secretary PC Parakh in its 14th FIR in the coal block allocation scam. The investigating agency has accused Mr Birla of cheating and conspiracy, alleging that he was shown "undue favour" in a coal block being allotted to Hindalco in 2005.
India Inc is up in arms and has warned that the CBI's move against Mr Birla, a leading industrialist with business interests in 40 countries, could dampen investor sentiment at a time when the country faces an economic crisis.
Industry body CII said in a statement today, "Reputations of institutions and individuals take years to build and therefore, extreme caution needs to be exercised before any action is taken, which jeopardizes reputation that institutions and individuals build for themselves."
CII president Kris Gopalakrishnan also said, "Every effort should be made to ensure that there is no atmosphere of fear created, when it comes to decision making. Swift decisions and transparent policy environment are pre requisites of an enabling business climate."
Another industry body Ficci said, "business leaders cannot be made scapegoats of mere suspicion and misconstrued actions." It's president Naina Lal Kidwai too said that such actions could impede critical decision-making.
"He is straight as an arrow...ludicrous that an FIR has been filed against Kumar Mangalam Birla," HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh, said.
Commerce Minister Anand Sharma hastened to assure industry that the government values India's corporate leaders like Mr Birla and that their integrity cannot be questioned. In an interview to NDTV he said, "if every (policy) decision made is questioned, if every person is questioned, if an atmosphere of fear is created, this country will suffer."
The matter is hyper-sensitive for the government as Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh headed the coal ministry for a portion of the period being investigated by the CBI. He held charge of the coal ministry in 2005, when the coal block in Odisha was allotted to Hindalco, one of the largest aluminium makers in Asia.
Hindalco has said in a statement, "Every process required for coal allocation in line with government regulations completely followed."