Statement From Vaishnavi Corporate Communications Pvt Ltd

We strongly condemn the unsubstantiated, baseless and reckless allegations being indiscriminately levelled by some media properties against our group, Chairperson, officers and our only client in the telecom space, Tata Teleservices.

For nearly a year now, there have been transcripts of purported conversations between our Chairperson, Ms. Niira Radia with some reputed personalities from various walks of life. These unverified transcripts and tapes have been widely circulated in the media by motivated and vested interests intent on maligning us, and deflecting public attention from their own wrongdoing in the telecom sector. Indeed, many of the purported transcripts being circulated have absolutely no relevance to telecom at all, and are merely being used for dramatic effect, and to create the illusion of wrongdoing on our part.

The new CAG report on telecom clearly states and shows that our client Tata Teleservices has been unfairly discriminated against in the allotment of spectrum. The same CAG report also clearly identifies the telecom operators who have extracted undue benefits and advantages from the government and people of India in the telecom space. Now, when media and national attention is focussing on these wrongdoings, some vested interests are seeking to create a smokescreen behind which they can hide their own wrong doings and misdeeds. By once again distributing tapes and attributing alleged conversations to Ms. Radia at a time when there is a media frenzy over telecom, these vested interests seek to divert public attention from the key issues outlined in the CAG report, and companies that CAG has directly accused of extracting undue benefits from the government. While many media properties have desisted the efforts of these vested interests, other have fallen into the trap of using their unverified and unsubstantiated allegations against us, apparently without conducting their own due diligence or adhering to basic journalistic norms. A simple illustration of such false reporting has been a statement published in the DNA newspaper, which said "Ms. Radia is in London" and implied our Chairperson is evading the law, when the fact is that she is very much in India and committed to fully cooperating with any of the agencies currently investigating the telecom industry.

For the record, we would like to state that we had been asked by one single agency for some information and we have been complying and cooperating fully with them.

It is also a matter of concern to us that the names of some of our senior colleagues and former associates have also been dragged into controversy through an unprovoked and unabashed trial by media. The reputations of these eminent persons has been built painfully over years of dedicated and sincere national service, and are now being tarnished by this vicious campaign without any corroboration of facts and verification.

We are proud of our clients and the relationship we have shared with them. Together, we have worked to create a more level playing field in telecom for our client Tata Teleservices and have always conducted ourselves with the highest levels of probity and maintained the highest standard of professional behaviour.

We sincerely hope that the media will exercise caution and discretion in their reporting while continuing their pursuit of the truth."

-- Spokesperson, Vaishnavi Corporate Communications Pvt. Ltd