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is a misleading campaign being done sibility. As far as, the ministry is con- right to stop it. So I think that no sensible
deliberately, but the public is not going to cerned, this ministry was in headlines person can allege this because telecom is
be misled by it. till 2014 for some other reasons. After an open market.
the formation of Modi ji’s government, I The consumer has the freedom that
You are a big leader of Purvanchal. believe that the Ministry is in headlines he can take anyone’s service any day.
Will you be able to maintain the for different reasons now. There was a If someone is taking services of Airtel,
position of BJP in Purvanchal in this huge trust deficit in the era of previous Idea-Vodafone or BSNL-MTNL; neither
election? governments, especially in the telecom- Government interferes nor TRAI.
I am not a big leader. There are many munications ministry.
other big leaders in Purvanchal of our The trust deficit had grown; the inves- When the Congress started criticising
party. That’s why I am not claiming that tors did not want to invest. We rectified all these issues, then you answered
but one thing I want to tell you that that trust deficit, whether it was of an that, 10 to 20 senior Congress leaders
Ghazipur-the place where I belong, Lok investor or the stakeholders, we have who have written the letter in which
Sabha constituency is not favorable for reinstated it. Whether Indian investors this matter has been discussed. Why
the Bharatiya Janata Party. Ask anyone, or foreign investors, they are investing did not the department exposed their
he will tell you that it is a tough seat for in this government with open-mind. As names?
the BJP but now some people have made far as foreign investment is concerned, a This will be a very small state of mind if
alliance and some others are in the pro- lot of investment has been done in com- I take the name of those politicians who
cess. So, in Uttar Pradesh we have to fight parison to the earlier. Government has had written me a letter and I do not do
that. Under the leadership of powerful such politics. Politics has a limit and
and influential leader like Modi, we shall ‘This (BJP) is a everyone should follow the limits. I am
definitely win. committed to it.
party, not a single
You talked about coalition, but there person and it is not In the last one year, Aircel Limited
is strife within NDA. As Amit Shah had had declared bankruptcy; Reliance
said in Maharashtra that if Shiv Sena a party where only
won’t treat us properly, then we will
treat them like enemies. Isn’t it a a person takes all
strong message from Amit Shah? the decisions. We
Please do not misinterpret Amit Shah ji’s
words. He has not said this. He has not have a parliamentary
said that we shall behave like enemies. board; our party has
He said that Shiv Sena is our ally party
and will be with us and we will fight to- an organisational
gether. If it will fight against us then we structure’
will try not to lose to anyone and I am
quoting the exact words of Amit Shah.

The moral of the story is that the NDA also increased investment six times in
alliance is in turmoil, the partners are the ministry.
leaving. Anupriya Patel, of your state
is also getting a bit negative? People believe that in the telecom
Anupriya Patel is absolutely with us. We sector Reliance Jio has domination.
will contest together. Be assured that the The Ministry of Telecommunication
all is well in NDA and it will remain fine. and TRAI were seen using the Prime
Minister’s photo while projecting
PM Modi appointed you as an Reliance Jio. How do you see this?
independent minister of telecom. This is an open market and in the open
How are you fulfilling your market the consumer will decide who
responsibility? will dominate it. The government does
This is the prime minister’s prerogative, not have to decide on it if the consumer
which role to be assigned to whom. I do is attracted towards someone. This is a
not to want to say anything on this. This same level playing field. If someone gets
is his prerogative. Yes, I can thank Prime impressed with the service and goes to
Minister for providing me this respon- someone, then the government has no

TEHELKA / 15 FEBRUARY 2019 44 WWW.TEHELKA.COM

40-47 Q&A Anil Singh.indd 6 2/1/2019 8:18:31 PM