Maran under pressure to quit, JPC may quiz him & others

The noose is tightening around the neck of Dayanidhi Maran, Union Textiles Minister, for allegedly favouring a Malaysian businessman with telecom licences and spectrum during his earlier tenure as Communications Minister in the UPA during 2004-07.

Even as a TV news channel reported that gentle hints have been given to Maran to put in his papers, the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) investigating the 2G spectrum scam looks set to call all telecom ministers to testify before it, including Dayanidhi Maran.

The Prime Minister, in a bid to salvage his government’s sagging image on corruption, is also said to be taking a close look at the Maran affair. He has sent a reminder to all UPA ministers about a code of conduct he had sent them a year-and-a-half-ago. (See Youtube Video) .

The code asks Cabinet ministers to disclose details about their assets and liabilities, and avoid dealing with government on immoveable properties. Ministers have been asked to cut all links with companies and businesses that they were connected to before they became ministers.

This part of the code is particularly relevant to Dayanidhi Maran, for the primary allegation against him is that he used his ministerial power to get investments into his brother’s company, Sun Direct. He is also alleged to have got Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd to set up a 323-line telephone exchange at a Chennai address to favour the Sun TV Group, losing the company crores in potential revenues.

Indications that Maran will not survive long as minister also came at Tuesday’s JPC hearing, when the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) chief AP Singh came to testify.

Singh’s presentation to the committee apparently talked about the period when Arun Shourie was Communications Minister in the NDA government, but DMK’s TR Baalu quickly jumped in and asked Singh not to name any minister. This was clearly an attempt to see that Maran’s name did not come up for scrutiny.

According to PTI, JPC chief PC Chacko intervened and asked members not to ask too many questions so that the presentation could proceed smoothly. During the presentation, the CBI chief briefed the committee about its probe into the buyout of Aircel by Malaysia’s Maxis Communications - which is the one that is likely to implicate Maran.

On Monday, Aircel’s previous owner, C Sivasankaran (Siva), dropped a bombshell by telling the CBI that Maran, when he was Communications Minister, forced him to sell his stake in the company. The stake was bought by Maxis, owned by Sri Lankan Tamil Ananda Krishnan.

Maran, of course, denied any such thing , and pointed out that no billionaire could really be forced to sell his company if he didn’t want to. He also dished out press reports from 2004 which suggested that Siva was anyway looking out for a buyer for Aircel (then called Dishnet Wireless).

However, none of this takes anything away from the accusation that Maran favoured Maxis and, in return, got a payoff in his brother Kalanithi Maran’s company, Sun Direct.

F_irstpost_ reported last week that Maran did not clear Aircel’s applications for telecom licences and spectrum in additional circles till Sivasankaran sold it to Maxis. “The unstated allegation was that Dayanidhi did not want Siva to get licences, and wanted to favour Maxis, for reasons best known to him. Maran allocated 14 circles and related spectrum to Aircel after Maxis took over.”