The Tata Group on Thursday stood behind corporate lobbyist Niira Radia who was caught in a controversy over her alleged role in 2G spectrum allocation, an issue on which the opposition is demanding 's resignation.
"The Tata Group has had a long and fruitful association with Vaishnavi Corporate Communications and its chairperson Ms Niira Radia, which has added substantial value to the group's communications and public perception," a spokesperson of the group's holding company Tata Sons said in a statement.
Tata Sons said that "all of Vaishnavi's interactions with the government on behalf of the Tata Group have been related to seeking a level playing field and equity in areas where vested interests have caused distortions or aberrations in policy.
"Further Vaishnavi's interactions with the government on behalf of the Tata Group, have, in keeping with Tata values, never involved payouts or seeking undue favours," the Tata Sons spokesperson noted.
The statement came a day after Parliament was rocked by the opposition's demand for resignation of Raja, citing reports that he worked in tandem with a corporate lobbyist in allocation of 2G spectrum.
The opposition's demand was triggered by a news report that "CBI has acquired clinching evidence showing that a high profile woman PR lobbyist acted as a power broker in the multi-billion 2G spectrum scam."
Last evening, the government said in a statement that there were reports that phones of Niira Radia, who heads a clutch of PR companies, were tapped, while conversations of several influential businessmen, politicians and advertising professionals were also tapped in connection with the allocation of 2G spectrum.
The government had also said in that statement that the IT authorities had not tapped phones of influential businessmen, politicians and advertising professionals.
Raja has been facing allegations of distributing new telecom licences and spectrum at throwaway prices and causing huge losses to the exchequer. Nine new licences were issued in January 2008 at Rs 1,658 crore (Rs 16.58 billion) for pan-India operations.
CBI is also investigating alleged irregularities in the spectrum allocation and has registered a case against some unknown officials of the Department of Telecom for their involvement. But no report has been given by the investigating agency so far.
Image: Telecom Minister A Raja.
