Aircel-Maxis Scam: Panicky Chidambaram tries to put the blame on officers

[dropcap color=”#008040″ boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”8px” class=”” id=””]A[/dropcap]fter CBI declared its probe in Aircel-Maxis, the panicky former Finance Minister P Chidambaram has come out with a pack of lies. A day after the CBI declared its detailed probe details to be furnished in Supreme Court by May 2 and Enforcement Directorate reported to the Apex court about Chidambaram’s violations and son Karti’s two lakh dollar kick back from Maxis, the former Finance Minister has come out with a vague statement.

How come value of investment reduced from announced Rs.4700 crore to Rs.3600 crore?

In his statement uploaded by son Karti’s Twitter account, Chidambaram cleverly tries to put the blame on senior government officials, pretending innocence. In a nut shell, Chidambaram claimed that he just signed on the papers vetted by government officers. Here Chidambaram is telling a blatant lie.

Being a Tamilian, he should be aware of his home town company Aircel’s take over by Malaysian company Maxis. Fact of the matter is that Aircel promoter Sivasankaran is known to Chidambaram as well as the then Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran and no officer would dare to question the deal.

On December 31, 2005, all media reported that Malaysian company Maxis is going to invest Rs.4700 core or 1.08 billion dollars in Aircel. The news report appeared on the same day because both companies conducted joint press conference in Mumbai to announce this big deal.

In the first week of January 2006, Maxis submitted application to Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB). In the application they said in many areas that they are going to invest 800 million dollars (Rs.3600 crore) in Aircel. How come value of investment reduced from announced Rs.4700 crore to Rs.3600 crore? After eight years in 2014, the CAG found that the actual value invested was Rs.4700 crore, though dubious approval given by Chidambaram was for Rs.3600 crore. So more than Rs.1000 crore came illegally and where has it gone?

[dropcap color=”#008040″ boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”8px” class=”” id=””]T[/dropcap]hose days in 2006, any foreign investment above Rs.600 crore, the Finance Minister has to send the FIPB papers to Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs(CCEA). But Chidambaram did not. He was CCEA Chairman also those days. Then why did he not send these papers to the CCEA?

It is certain that without Chidambaram’s directions this glaring violation would not have happened.

The answer is simple. In CCEA, Home Ministry would have objected to Maxis because Saudi Telecom is a partner in the Malaysian company. The Saudi Telecom is also a partner in Pakistan Telecom Company known as PTCL. To avoid objections of the Home Ministry, Chidambaram might have avoided the mandatory sending of files to CCEA.

Worse, the FIPB Order on Aircel-Maxis deal never specified the value of the deal to avoid public scrutiny. How come officers ignored this basic violation? It is certain that without Chidambaram’s directions this glaring violation would not have happened.

Enforcement Directorate has unearthed $200,000 money trail between Karti’s Chess Management Consulting Pvt Ltd and Maxis Group companies after father Chidambaram approved this dubious deal. This is a classic case of corruption.

For the past 30 months, many unscrupulous elements in Delhi have been trying to save their buddy Chidambaram from the Aircel-Maxis scam. They have been trying their best to scuttle BJP leader Subramanian Swamy’s case. Hope the CBI under new Director Alok Kumar Verma has awakened from its slumber and Prime Minister’s office would give strong directions on this regard on this open and shut case.