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Satyam independent directors watching situation

Special Correspondent

Mangalam Srinivasan quits from the board on Thursday

Demand for Rammohan Rao’s resignation from various panels.

HYDERABAD: Mendu Rammohan Rao, Dean of Indian School of Business and independent director on the board of Satyam Computer Services, does not want to take any action now on his resignation. He will wait for the next board meeting on December 29 “to take it forward”.

The resignation of the longest-serving independent director Mangalam Srinivasan on Thursday from the board of directors of the company apparently mounted pressure on the other independent directors.

None of them have officially confirmed that they may follow suit. Meanwhile, an MP from West Bengal, Abani Roy (Revolutionary Socialist Party), demanded that Mr. Rao resign from his positions in various government and regulatory committees.

In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the MP said: “His actions in the boardroom of Satyam further accentuated by his stoic silence on various issues reflect an irresponsible role of conduct on his behalf”.

Mr. Rao is on the panel of several important selection committees for top bosses of several regulatory bodies such as the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Former Union Cabinet Secretary T. R. Prasad was, however, unavailable for comments.

Collective decision

Apparently, Mr. Rammohan Rao did not want to respond to the demand of his resignation from the selection committees, as a query sent to him on this issue and his take on the resignation of Ms. Srinivasan remained unanswered. But he said: “Decisions were taken collectively. I am not taking any actions at the moment. At the next board meeting, there will be discussions, clarifications will be sought, and then I will take it forward”.

V. S. Raju, another independent director and former Dean of IIT Delhi, said: “The issues were discussed at length and he was actually taken by surprise by the resignation of Ms. Srinivasan. There is no reason why she should step down”.

To a query if there was voting on the now aborted deal, he replied in the negative and added that it was a unanimous decision.

Meanwhile, Sudip Mazumder, World Bank’s India spokesman, said the bank rejected the demand for an apology by Satyam and further clarifications could come only from Washington.

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