Ramachandran Viswanathan, a US citizen of Indian origin, has been at loggerheads with the Indian government so much so that he wants Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and 10 others banned by the Biden administration.
Dubbed a ‘fugitive economic offender‘ by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Viswanathan is pleading with the US government to impose visa and economic sanctions against 11 Indians for supposed ‘corruption’ and ‘human rights violation’ – with no proof, of course.
Besides Nirmala Sitharaman, the list includes Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, Additional Solicitor General N Venkataraman, and Supreme Court Judges Hemant Gupta and V Ramasubramanian. The Director, Assistant Director and Deputy Director of the ED are also named by Viswanathan.
The ‘economic offender’ has pinned his hopes on the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act of 2016, which empowers the US government to sanction foreign govt officials, freeze their assets and stop them from entering the country for ‘human rights violations.’
In August this year, Frontiers of Freedom filed a petition, on the behest of Viswanathan, with the US State Department wherein it declared Nirmala Sitharaman and 10 others as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Magnitsky 11.’ And on 13th October, they published a full-page advertisement in the DC edition of the Wall Street Journal urging the US govt to impose economic and visa sanctions against the Indian finance minister and the 10 others.
The contentious advertisement read, “These Modi Government officials have decimated the rule of law by weaponizing the institutions of the state to settle scores with political and business rivals, making India unsafe for investors.”
“We have asked the U.S. government to impose economic and visa sanctions against them under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. Under Modi, a decline in the rule of law has made India a dangerous place to invest. If you are an investor in India, you might be next,” it warned.
The Bone of Contention: An UPA-era deal
The year was 2004. Ramachandran Viswanathan co-founded a company by the name of ‘Devas Multimedia Private Limited’ in Bengaluru to provide satellite-based multimedia services.
A year later, Devas signed a deal with the Antrix Corporation, the commercial and marketing arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). As per the agreement, Antrix was to build 2 satellites
According to the contract, Antrix was to build two satellites (GSAT 6 and 6A) while Devas was supposed to use the S-band transponders of the communication satellites to provide multimedia services to Indian mobile subscribers.
Reportedly, the deal was backed by multiple investors including Deutsche Telekom (DT) of Germany and 3 Mauritian telecommunication companies. As was common during the UPA era, the Antrix-Devas deal went under scrutiny over allegations of irregularities and corruption.
It was alleged that Devas had insider knowledge with respect to the commercialisation of the S-band spectrum and that it was obtained by the Bengaluru-based startup at throwaway prices. The 2G scam was the last nail in the coffin.
Over accusations of ‘quid pro quo’, the Congress-led UPA government terminated the deal in 2011. The decision to terminate the deal was made way back in July 2010 by the Indian Space Commission but the public announcement was made only in February month of the following year.
Interestingly, the government did not apprise Devas about the development and made the public announcement directly. And thus began an 11-year-long legal battle!
India left red-faced in BIT tribunals and ICC
The foreign investors from Germany and Mauritius, backing the Antrix-Devas deal, brought Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) claims against India. According to Business Today, BIT is meant to prevent unwarranted intervention and violation of investors’ rights by regulatory bodies in a foreign nation.
The Indian government argued that the deal had to be cancelled due to the growing demand of the S-band satellite spectrum for national security. However, it failed to make a mark and the tribunals ruled in favour of the foreign investors.
The tribunals blamed the UPA govt for repeated delays and indecision in the allocation of the S-band spectrum and concluded that there was no emergency for reclaiming the spectrum.
In 2020, India was asked to pay $160 million plus interest to Mauritius investors and $132 million plus interest to German investors. To add salt to the wound, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) directed ISRO’s commercial arm, Antrix, to cough up 562.5 million in damages to Devas.
If accounted for the interest, the amount stands at a whopping $1.2 billion. An appeal to stay the arbitration award has so far failed to bring any favourable outcome.
The vindictive approach of Devas and its liquidation
Devas Multimedia Private Limited, co-founded by Ramachandran Viswanathan, has been vindictive in its approach ever since the fallout with the UPA-era government.
It is pursuing legal cases in Canada, France and the United States to seize the foreign assets of Antrix and the Indian government. So far, Devas has been granted permission to recover $23 million dollars of Air India’s revenue, which is currently in possession of the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
Reportedly, a French court also ordered to freeze of the 3.8 million euro apartment of India’s deputy chief of mission in Paris, on the behest of Devas. Ramachandran Viswanathan is now seeking to ban the entry of Nirmala Sitharaman and 10 others to the US.
The ‘fugitive economic offender’ is miffed at the decision of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to liquidate his company. In January last year, Antrix moved the tribunal, seeking its liquidation. It had argued that Devas was founded with fraudulent motives.
NCLT ordered the liquidation of the company in May 2021, which was then challenged in the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT). However, it was of no avail and Viswanathan decided to approach the Supreme Court of India.
In January 2022, the apex court upheld the order for liquidation and rejected the claim that Antrix wanted to deprive it of the favourable arbitration awards. While the liquidation of Devas is imminent, its co-founder has now sought to defame India and weaken the trust of foreign investors.
The labelling of India’s Finance Minister as a Human rights violator, along with ED officials and Supreme Court judges shows how far a ‘salty’ Indian-origin investor can go to defame his own home country.
