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Govt nominee did not dissent, says VSNL

Thomas K Thomas

Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd has challenged the claims of Rakesh Kumar, the government nominee on VSNL's board, that he had not given his consent to its May 28 decision to invest Rs 12 billion in Tata Teleservices.

In a strongly worded letter to Rakesh Kumar, the company has stated, "during the deliberations at the Board there was no note of dissent from you (Rakesh Kumar) nor did you demand any vote on any item including Item No B11 (which mentioned the proposed investment plan). As such it is clear that the approval of the Board on all items including Item No. B.11 was unanimous."

Copies of the letter, signed by VSNL's executive director (legal) and company secretary, Satish Ranade, were sent to Tata supremo Ratan Tata (who is also VSNL chairman) and other directors of the company.

With this the battle between the minister of communication and IT Pramod Mahajan and VSNL's new management has taken a new turn. The ministry had earlier been claiming that Rakesh Kumar had not given his approval to VSNL's proposal to invest in Tata Teleservices.

Dismissing Kumar's claims that he was not informed about the investment of Rs 12 billion, Ranade, in his communications has said that the notice and the copy of the agenda containing the list of items for considerations at the 127th meeting of the Board held on May 28 were sent to Kumar by fax on 21 May and by hand on May 22.

Ranade's letter has clarified that the agenda did not contain accounts and accounts related items as those items were to be considered by the audit committee.

According to the VSNL letter, while the agenda had mentioned the quantum of investment it had not said anything about where VSNL proposed to invest Rs 12 billion. What the agenda had said was "to consider inter-corporate investment up to the level of Rs 12 billion in the share capital of an Indian company holding a basic service operators licence."

However, Ranade has pointed out that the presentation made by Srinath, one of the directors on VSNL board and discussion thereafter during the Board meeting had clearly communicated that VSNL proposed to invest in shares in Tata Telservices Ltd.

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