Sikdar ready to quit if charges are proved

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, AUG. 29. The Lok Sabha today witnessed a wordy duel between Mr. Mani Shankar Aiyar and the Minister of State for Communications, Mr. Tapan Sikdar, with the latter offering to quit the Council of Ministers if the accusation about Ministerial interference in equipment purchase tenders by MTNL was proved.

Mr. Sikdar made the offer to resign while replying to charges of ``impropriety amounting perhaps to corruption'' levelled by Mr. Aiyar. Accusing Congressmen of routinely taking the route of making ``fabricated and concocted allegations'', the Minister felt Mr. Aiyar had either been mislead or (had) taken ``the brief from some interested quarters.

``I challenge you to prove the charges and I will resign from the Ministry. Otherwise, stern action should be taken against people who level this kind of fabricated and motivated allegations,'' said a visibly perturbed Mr. Sikdar, who also offered to table in Parliament all the files in this regard. Taking up the gauntlet, Mr. Aiyar suggested that a House panel, preferably a Joint Parliamentary Committee, should investigate the allegation of Ministerial interference which included browbeating of a senior MTNL official by the Minister's staff in the presence of a representative of a private company.

Earlier, speaking during the discussion, Mr. Aiyar narrated the sequence of events after a French multinational emerged as the lowest bidder in a Rs. 65-crore tender floated by the MTNL. The Central Vigilance Commission's directive not to indulge in post- tender negotiations were violated and the MTNL board's decision was overturned. An official was even summoned to the Minister's office and pressurised to reverse his notings, he charged.

In reply, Mr. Sikdar conceded that the French MNC, Alcatel, was indeed the lowest tenderer. But the tender was re-examined on the basis of complaints from some MPs as well as a protest letter by the CMD of the public sector ITI whose bid was the second lowest. Thereafter, the route taken by the Ministry was endorsed even by the Delhi High Court, he maintained.

In the end, however, the badly depleted Opposition benches were unable to obtain a ruling from the Chair. The moment of confrontation was allowed to pass unresolved amidst demands for a Parliamentary probe by Mr. Aiyar and a CBI inquiry by the treasury benches.

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