Social media is trending on possible links between France’s Le Monde newspaper and Sam Pitroda, the high-profile technocrat close to the Gandhi family.
It has been suggested that Pitroda, who many describe as the father of India’s telecom revolution, has close business links with French billionaire Xavier Niel, one of the co-owners of Le Monde.
Niel’s main business is telecom. Forbes.com, which puts his wealth at $4.4bn, says he owns 55% of Ilaid, the parent company of Free Mobile, which is owned by him.
A series of social media posts, which started on Saturday and then picked up momentum, suggested that Pitroda actually invested in Niel’s company.
Ravi Kant, who uses the Twitter handle @LegalKant, claimed in a post: “So basically Le Monde’s co-owner has links to Sam Pitroda and @lemondefr main French media competitor @Le_Figaro is owned by Groupe Dassault Did @lemondefr share these facts in its vicious report that seems more suited for Congress mouthpiece @NH_India.”
In another post, he says: “Few are aware that Xavier Niel’s firms gained from investments made by Sam Pitroda. To what extent Sam Pitroda made those investments?” He then asks: “Can Sam Pitroda deny any commercial links with Xavier Niel?”
Ravi Kant goes on to claim on Twitter: “Such deep are the links between French Newspaper Le Monde and SamPitroda (advisor of @RahulGandhi) that he was called as ‘father of India’s telecommunications network equipment’.”
IANS contacted Pitroda on WhatsApp against the backdrop of Kant’s tweets, and asked whether he had any links with Niel. Pitroda’s response was: “Do not know who he is and have no business with him. I do not know where you got this from.”
Pitroda: controversy
