Facing action over letter he wrote to PM,Abani Roy quits RSP

Pulled up for dabbling in corporate affairs,senior RSP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Abani Roy has resigned from the party.

Pulled up for dabbling in corporate affairs,senior RSP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Abani Roy has resigned from the party. The move is seen as an attempt to pre-empt any disciplinary action which the party,a constituent of the Left Front,may initiate against him for writing letters to the Prime Minister and senior ministers on corporate issues in his capacity as MP.

Roy submitted his resignation on July 15,five days after The Indian Express reported on the letter he had written to the Prime Minister asking him to stop the proposed merger of Bharti Airtel with South African telecom giant MTN,arguing that the deal would compromise national security. He had also urged the PM to stop all government functionaries from using Airtel mobile services.

The letter had raised many eyebrows within the RSP which felt he should not have dragged the party into corporate issues. RSP general secretary T J Chandrachoodan also sought an explanation from him.

Airtel entered into talks with MTN after negotiations between Anil Ambanis Reliance Communications and the South African major failed. Many RSP leaders read the letter in this context.

With the party coming down hard,Roy submitted his resignation. But sources said no decision was taken by the party then because Chandrachoodan left for the US on a vacation. Sources close to Roy today leaked word of his resignation to the media after it became clear that action against him would follow once Chandrachoodan returned next month.