Wednesday, July 27 2005 21:41 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Accusing the Left parties of levelling unsubstantiated allegations against him on sale of Centaur Hotels, former disinvestment minister Arun Shourie today (July 27, 2005) asked them to prove he had favoured Ranjan Bhattacharya, former prime minister A B Vajpayee's foster son-in-law, in the bid process.

"Where is the favour shown to Ranjan Bhattacharya?" he asked, reacting to the charge that he was shielding Bhattacharya, who the Left parties have accused of having links with Batra Hospitality, a company that bid for one of the Centaur Hotels.

"The allegation is typical of what has happened to public life and public discourses in India. Anyone can say anything about anybody," said Shourie, who served as minister in the Vajpayee Government.

"At no stage about any disinvestment did Rajan Bhattacharya speak to me. Nor did anyone ever speak to me on his behalf about any disinvestment," he asserted.

He said if this was the sort of so called evidence, which CPI (M) chief Prakash Karat and associates can come up with then let us see "what CBI makes of it.

"As far as Batra and his bid, it was an open bid in which any one could have participated. His bid was rejected once as being below the reserve price. It was only in the second round that he succeeded," Shourie clarified.

The former minister said that government got the entire money (from the disinvestment deal of Centaur Airport hotel in 2002) as per scheduled time. Then "where is the favour shown to him (Ranjan)", he quipped.