Tata strikes back
Mumbai: Cautioning that the environment of scandals was damaging the country’s image, Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata said here today that if the government did not step in and uphold the rule of law, there was every possibility that India could slide down the path of becoming a “banana republic.” He added that he would have “no hesitation of telling the Prime Minister that.”
Speaking to The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta for NDTV's Walk The Talk programme -- to be broadcast on Sunday -- Tata said the mood in the country had swiftly deteriorated.
"It is a murky time, it is a confusing time, just a couple of weeks ago we were sitting on top of a summit or a mountain top with President Obama showering praise on what we had done, talking about maturity, talking of our having emerged and not being an emerging force," Tata said.
"And then we have somewhat slipped into a morass of series of allegations, unauthorised tapes being flooded, the media going crazy -- alleging, convicting, executing, literally character assassination -- and in fact I think in so doing there's been a smokescreen behind what is really the so-called scam," he said, referring to the spectrum scandal that led to the resignation of Union Telecom Minister A Raja.
Tata's public comments are the first since tapped telephone conversations involving corporate lobbyist Niira Radia, journalists and businessmen, including Tata himself, were made public by Outlook and Open magazines in connection with reports about the spectrum scandal. Radia, who has been questioned by the Enforcement Directorate, represents the Tata group, among others.
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