New Delhi:
As promised, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Parliament targeted union minister P Chidambaram over the sale of telecom firm Aircel in 2006 to a company from Malaysia named Maxis. At the time, Mr Chidambaram was the Finance Minister. His opponents say that he deliberately delayed sanctioning the deal by several months so that his son could invest in the telecom firm and benefit from Maxis' acquisition of the company.
In the Rajya Sabha, Mr Chidambaram said, "It would be much simpler if somebody took a dagger and plunged it into my heart, rather than questioning my integrity." An unmoved Mr Jaitley said the opposition was not seeking to "hold a dagger in somebody's heart," but wanted to ensure transparency in governance.
Mr Chidambaram stressed that neither he nor any members of his family have owned "any share in any telecom company at any time, indirectly or directly."
The minister's role in the Aircel-Maxis deal has become a burning topic because of allegations raised last month by Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy. He alleges that in 2006, Karti Chidambaram owned 94% equity in a company named Ausbridge Holding and Investments Pvt. Before the Aircel deal was sanctioned, he claims, this firm bought shares in a company that owned stake in Aircel, named Advantage Strategic Consultancy Pvt Ltd. Mr Swamy alleges that after Mr Chidambaram cleared Maxis' purchase of Aircel, his son made considerable profits.
Sources at Advantage deny being Aircel's holding company. In 2006, Advantage did an assignment for Aircel and was paid Rs 26 lakh.
Mr. Chidambaram confirmed that his son was one of the founding partners of Ausbridge but clarified that in 2006, the company had no link to Aircel. He said that it was only in 2011 that Ausbridge made "a passive investment" of five lakhs in Advantage.
Mr Jaitley, however, referred to documents that allegedly show that in 2006, Ausbridge and Advantage shared a common email address. "Even if they had a same website address, what is the relevance of that?" asked Mr Chidambaram. "Nobody is saying that promoters of Advantage and Ausbridge do not know each other. Both are in Chennai and doing business...young people are entitled to start legitimate businesses," he added.
Mr Chidambaram also said his son no longer owns any part of Ausbridge.
The Aircel-Maxis deal is already being studied on different grounds by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Then Telecom Minister, Dayanidhi Maran, is being investigated for allegedly misusing his office.
C Sivasankaran, who owned Aircel, has alleged that licenses vital for his business were held up by Mr Maran, who was allegedly pressuring him to sell the company to the owner of Maxis, T Ananda Krishnan. After Mr Sivasankaran sold Aircel to Maxis, the licenses he had applied for were granted. The CBI is checking whether Rs. 600 crore invested by Maxis in Sun Direct, owned by Mr Maran's brother, Kalanidhi, was a quid pro quo.