Tata bares airline bribe demand

Mumbai: Ratan Tata said he had grounded plans to float a domestic airline because of a suggestion by a fellow industrialist to pay a bribe of Rs 15 crore to a minister to secure approvals.
“I happened to be on a flight once. A fellow industrialist sitting next to me said: ‘You know, I don’t understand; you people are very stupid. You know that the minister wants Rs 15 crore. Why don’t you just pay? You want the airlines.’ ‘I said you will never understand this; I just want to go to bed at night knowing that I haven’t got the airline by paying for it’,” Tata said while recounting the incident to reporters in Dehra Dun today.
The Tata group chieftain’s comment brought into sharp focus a 13-year-old episode in which Bombay House -- the headquarters of the Tata group -- was thwarted while attempting to claw its way back into the aviation business that the group had pioneered in the country in 1932 has never been fully .
Tata did not disclose the identity of the industrialist or the minister in question.
Late in the evening, the Tata public relations issued a clarification stating that “no minister (had) ever asked Mr Tata for a bribe”.
16/11/10 The Telegraph