Tata alerted PM about Maran misusing power, says Baru

Prominent industrialist Ratan Tata had alerted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about then Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran allegedly using his portfolio to favour his brother Kalanidhi’s media business, claims PM’s former media advisor Sanjaya Baru in his new book.

In the controversial book “The Accidental Prime Minister: The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh”, Baru claims that it was Singh who played a major role in stitching the new UPA coalition together and it was he who had negotiated the DMK’s entry into the alliance with M Karunanidhi in January 2004.

Sonia Gandhi had rejected Narasimha Rao’s proposal that the Congress should ink a deal with the DMK rather than AIADMK in 1996. “Against this background, the 2004 alliance with the Congress could not have been negotiated by Sonia. It was left to Singh to do that, and I was always surprised that political analysts paid little attention to these capabilities of the prime minister (Singh),” Baru writes.

Initially, he says, Karunanidhi’s nephew and then Telecom Minister Maran was the key interlocutor between Singh and the DMK leader in Chennai.

“Maran’s stars plummeted when he got involved in the DMK’s fratricidal wars, joining forces with Karunanidhi’s son M K Stalin against his other son M K Azhagiri. His reputation also became unsavoury as he began using his telecom portfolio to favour his brother Kalanidhi’s media business. I was not sure if Dr Singh had been alerted to this by his officials, but he certainly was by Ratan Tata in early 2007,” Baru writes.

“Dayanidhi had summoned Tata to a meeting in Delhi in the latter’s own Taj Mahal Hotel on Mansingh Road, and tried to browbeat him into doing a deal that would favour his brother Kalanidhi’s Sun TV. Ratan Tata conveyed his disapproval of Dayanidhi’s behaviour to the PM,” he adds.

Maran could not be contacted for his comments.

As the book continued to create ripples, Prime Minister’s Media Advisor Pankaj Pachauri tweeted the April 11 statement by PMO  once again on Sunday.

The PMO said that reports that PMO files were seen by Sonia Gandhi was “completely baseless and mischievous”.

“It is categorically denied that any PMO file has ever been shown to Sonia Gandhi,” the statement issued on Friday night said.