A Raja, N Radia ‘n a relaxing weekend (NOT)

Dear All: I came across these four links in the last 30 hours – and they made my weekend (not). Together, they read like a sad – very sad – commentary on the state of affairs. You either have to be totally lacking in integrity to be blind to this level of circumstantial evidence – or completely compromised (yourself) and hence unable to do anything about it.

I will leave you to guess on which side Hon PM, Sh MMS falls. Read on. The first excerpt from More murky twists to Raja tale by J Gopikrishnan (emphasis added):

In February this year, the CBI probe unit handling the spectrum scam laid its hands on highly incriminating evidence that indicated transfer of scam money to secret accounts in Switzerland and other countries,but under political pressure the ‘lead’ has been conveniently buried.

The CBI stumbled upon damning evidence of money transfer in the spectrum case while probing the arrest of Maharashtra and Goa Chief Postmaster General (CPMG) MS Bali for accepting a bribe of Rs 2 crore from a builder for issuing a No-Objection Certificate (NoC) for granting construction permission on postal land at a prime spot in Mumbai.

Bali was caught red-handed in a Mumbai hotel late on February 24 along with Arun Dalmia, a frequent visitor to Telecom Minister A Raja’s office and residence for five years. Dalmia’s son Harsh was also arrested from the spot.

During interrogation, Dalmia told the sleuths about his two Swiss accounts and property details and high-volume cash transactions flowing into bank accounts in Delhi, Chennai, Singapore, Dubai, Malaysia and other tax havens abroad. Dalmia was for years on the radar of the Intelligence Bureau and RAW, who had informed the CBI that this middle-aged man was a broker for a Chinese telecom equipment vendor. Raja’s plan to grant an over Rs 20,000-crore deal to a Chinese telecom vendor for supplying GSM lines to BSNL was thwarted by the security concerns raised by these agencies.

Sources said the CBI suspected a link between the spectrum scam and the arrest of the duo when it learnt that Raja’s private secretary RK Chandolia had asked Bali to visit the hotel and collect the bribe from the builder.

…But, shockingly, the role of Chandolia in fixing the deal never came up in the statements recorded by the CBI. “Bali became a scapegoat,” sources said, adding that senior Dalmia also confirmed the role of Raja’s office in fixing this deal…After the CBI’s Mumbai unit alerted its Delhi counterparts the following day about the confession made by Bali and Dalmia and the possible link between the spectrum scam and Bali, a CBI team airdashed to Mumbai to interrogate the duo.

“But when we reached Delhi, our bosses got instructions from ‘highest authorities’ to delink the Mumbai case from our ongoing investigation. The Mumbai unit also got instruction to limit the case to Bali and Dalmias,” said a CBI official, adding that they were denied permission to verify the transaction details of the two Swiss accounts of the Dalmias.

Next, some excerpts from a report by Girish Nikam on The Radia Papers– Raja, Tata, Ambani connection (emphasis added; Hat Tip: Supratim):

For the last nearly a month, the name of Nira Radia has been in circulation. Two publications, Outlook and The Pioneer, raised the issue first almost simultaneously. While Outlook concentrated on the issue of phone tapping, Pioneer, referred to the larger issue of the connections between Radia and Telecom Minister A.Raja, and how the latter used the former to get back the Telecom portfolio after the formation of UPA II last year.

In normal circumstances, a story like this should have had the entire media hounding the Government and the players whose names had been mentioned in these stories. Just a few days before this, remember how Sunanda Pushkar and former Union Minister of State, Shashi Tharoor were hounded?

But it was not to be. Except for a couple of publications, like Mail Today and Outlook, none of the print publications have followed up on what seems to be one of the biggest scandals in this country, for a very long time. What is more surprising is the way in which most of the news TV Channels (except Headlines Today) which had made Tharoor-Pushkar story a national event, have clamped down on this story.

Except for covering the Parliament brou-ha-ha over the demand for the resignation of Raja, the majority of the media have remained quiet. Why?

…Nira Radia, as some of the publications have already published, is considered to be the most influential and powerful Public relations person, with powerful clients who controls almost half of the stock exchange— Ratan Tata, Mukesh Ambani and Sunil Mittal.

…She also has friends in the media, including some of the highest profiled media figures, apart from newspaper owners and editors…She also has been known to have direct access to some powerful politicians in both the ruling and opposition parties. Her entry into the Indian scene, way back in the late nineties using her proximity to BJP General Secretary and then Union Minister Ananth Kumar, is well documented.

No wonder, except for some piece-meal exposes here and there, the entire confidential papers of the CBI, Income Tax department, among others floating around in the hands of the media persons, have remained out of print.

A study of these papers indicates the vast network of Nira Radia, and how she has been able to deliver some of the controversial business projects, to the above mentioned big-wigs of industry and corporate world. The most controversial being the 2G spectrum, with her deep connections with the Telecom Minister A.Raja and his patron-in-chief, DMK supremo, M.Karunanidhi’s family.

The CBI filed a case in October 2009 in relation to what it calls, UAS Licenses granted in the year 2007-08. The communication between CBI and Income Tax authorities clearly makes out how Nira Radia was put under surveillance and what emerged from the tapping of her phones.

The reason for the media to have played shy of this scandal also comes out in these papers. Some of the most important and powerful media Houses and personalities, seem to be caught in the Radia web. The names of two of the biggest media stars, Vir Sanghvi and Barkha Dutt are also mentioned in these conversations, about their effort to assist Radia, to ensure Raja becomes the Telecom Minister. There is also a mention of how Radia has been “managing the media”.

Pl. do read Girish’s expose in full…and have a look at the CBI documents Girish has published on his site…in the hope that it would result in public pressure on authorities to come out with the truth.

Continued below

A Raja N Radia

Images courtesy: Hon Sh A Raja (LokSabha website), Ms N Radia (Noesis website)

The  third excerpt is from RealityCheck’s post on Manmohan Singh, Sonia and high corruption (emphasis added):

It is incredible that middlemen are involved in ministry allocations. This is where the phony capitalist corporate pipelines empty into the political sumps.

What is remarkable is how the media has immunized Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi, and P.Chidambaram from any and all corruption. It was not like this back in the early 90′s.  The scams of today yield Bofors kickbacks in simple interest everyday. Except a few media houses, no one follows this story.  Sure, NDTV and CNN-IBN report it but they dont follow it…

You an guess why.

And finally, M J Akbar on How much sleaze can you spare, brother? (emphasis added):

“My case is cleared, na?” said the politician who wanted to be telecom minister to the lobbyist for a telecom major four days before the present Union Cabinet was sworn in last summer. The middle-woman, Nira Radia, was coy and comforting in her first-name-basis response: “Your case was cleared last night only.”

The truly touching aspect of the politician’s piteous plea is a syllable, na. It has every shade of pathos, not to mention every variation of bathos, kneaded into it. The lobbyist is in command, and why shouldn’t she be? She knows something that is privy to perhaps three or four people at the very highest level of the present government.

…She does not convey how she knows the decision was taken the previous night, but she implies that she has intervened on Raja’s behalf. Raja does not care whether a corporation got him this job or not. He is merely desperate to get it.

We know this today, a year later, because of some sterling journalism done by the television channel Headlines Today, which obtained transcripts and audio recordings of the taped conversation and honored the profession of journalism by doing the story.

…Radia must now be the most famous middle-woman in the world. She is on the payroll of some of the most important corporates in contemporary India, both those with a tradition of grease and those with historic claims to probity.

Corporate warriors did not record this conversation…It was taped by income tax authorities, who suspected Radia of tax fraud, with formal permission of the home secretary. Raja’s phone was on tap; Radia’s was. …This information has been available with the Manmohan Singh government for many months now. Its only response was to harass and transfer the officials, as it sought to protect politicians.

Why was DMK insistent and prime minister reluctant?

Because both knew that Raja, as telecom minister in the first UPA Cabinet, was involved in a rip-off of incredible proportions. The Bofors allegations, which damaged the Congress in the 1980s, amounted to Rs64 crore. This 2G scam is said to be of the order of over Rs 60,000 crore or a thousand times that of Bofors. If you want to understand the scale of this rip-off, think of this. Sonia Gandhi has been pressing government to provide food security for those below the poverty line. Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has said government does not have the resources to do so. The cost of a year’s food security is far less than Rs 60,000 crore.

…DMK blackmail has worked, and would have continued to do so but for the integrity of some journalists.

The most important question awaiting an answer, unless a large, interconnected, corporate-politician-media establishment protects the brazenly guilty, is: How did a lobbyist know of portfolio distribution?

…This much we know thanks to a leak in government, possibly initiated by an officer who saw this option as a last resort. But think of the perhaps hundreds of conversations between minister and middle-woman that could not be taped. How much sleaze is stored in them?..

Enjoy the weekend – if you can.

Related Posts:

Is India a “Flailing State”? – Excerpts

How to earn Rs 10 crores+ a month

On Whistle-blowers, Murder and Corruption in high places

Burying Bofors

Plus several posts in Corruption in India category.

And finally, an attempt at tackling corruption over Diet Coke and Salad…

* Here are some excerpts from the recorded conversations in case you are curious.

P.S. The concluding line of Ms Nira Radia’s profile on her consultancy’s home page reads:

As an individual, complete in all aspects, she has always aspired to value add to whatever work she has been involved with, and to the lives of people who come in touch with her.

Tathaastu…and Amen to that.

B Shantanu

Political Activist, Blogger, Advisor to start-ups, Seed investor. One time VC and ex-Diplomat. Failed mushroom farmer; ex Radio Jockey. Currently involved in Reclaiming India - One Step at a Time.

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15 Responses

  1. Sid says:

    Man, what can I say? This is truly a sad day.May be Maoists are right. This corrupt rot deserves to die.

  2. Thanks for bringing this up, Shantanu. I hope that people reading this realise that it is THEY who have allowed this to happen.

    Have all your readers read about the CAUSES of corruption (e.g. Chapter 4 of my book, ‘Breaking Free of Nehru’, also covered in your blog here: https://satyameva-jayate.org/2007/09/14/fixing-the-system/ )?

    If so, I trust they realise that the ONLY solution is to get good people elected to reform the system from the top. It is IMPOSSIBLE to reform it from outside (such as by writing these articles/blog posts). It is also IMPOSSIBLE to reform it by joining any existing major political party, for these ruffians and gangsters won’t trust you one bit, nor will they tolerate such reforms which will oust them from power. Instead, those who join such parties will themselves become 100% contaminated and India will be lost.

    The next step is for ALL good people who want freedom and good governance to join the Freedom Team of India (http://freedomteam.in/) and work systematically towards reform. Giving up on India is not an option.

    Keep up the good work of bringing these pieces of information to light.

    Regards
    Sanjeev

    PS: I’ve also started a blog post to keep track of political (and other)corruption in India (http://sabhlok.blogspot.com/2010/05/corruption-in-indian-politics.html). I’ll link these posts of yours to that post.

  3. Bharat says:

    @Sanjay
    “Giving up on India is not an option”

    yeah right!!!

    Regards
    Bharat

  4. Milind says:

    Surprised to very less number of comments on this post.

    Chalta hain attitude still persists.

  5. Ram says:

    What an irony, just happened to see by Mr. MMS statement while celebrating CPA’s 1st anniversary. PM defends Raja, says he’s done no wrong. PL see the following link.

    http://ibnlive.in.com/news/pm-tries-to-defend-raja-says-nda-to-blame/116061-37-64.html?from=tn

    Mr. MMS does not care about the loss to the nation. He is interested in continuing in power because, Mr. MK has already threatened him on the same.

    Truly very sad.

  6. Rakesh T says:

    How openly the corruption can take place? This is the example.
    If (I)we just sit down as mute spectator, our country(soul) will be sold.

  7. Uma says:

    How many more skeletons in the cupboard?

    It is the same corruption that is bringing these people into power and keeping them there at the cost of security and financial stability of the country. How do we get rid of them? Media does nothing, Aam admi does not care, the few people that browse the net for such info are either abroad or don’t care to vote…what is the end to this! Interestingly I read somewhere as to why politicians don’t commit suicide? Why should they…they have no emotions, they are never unhappy, all their demands are met.

    In the same context I was reading Haindavakeralam and came across the following with all the shady details.

    http://haindavakeralam.com/HkPage.aspx?PAGEID=11164&SKIN=B

  8. B Shantanu says:

    @ Uma: Thanks for the link Uma…I have a busy day today so only had time to go through about half of this but it basically blows apart the PM’s assertion about Sh A Raja following earlier “policy”

    All: I would highly recommend going through the link, thanks to Uma

    Separately, some excerpts from Who is that, Mr PM? by Sh S Gurumurthy:

    …The issue in question is whether the price that the government asked and got for the spectrum for 2G cell phone licences issued in the year 2007 is of correct value.

    …The first point to note is that in 2007, the Indian cell phone business was the fastest growing in the world. It was drawing huge investments into the country. It was at that time that Raja was proposing to issue 11 new licences, including spectrum, for a measly sum of Rs 1,650 crore per licence.

    This was on the basis of the spectrum value in 2001 when the cell phone user population was about a sixth of the size in 2007. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India headed by an honest civil servant, Nripendra Misra, had openly come out and said that spectrum value in 2007 would not be less than Rs 6,000-8,000 crore, that is at least four to five times the value at which Raja had proposed to sell.

    Yet, the minister said the new licences (at 1/5 its value) would be given on ‘first-come-first-served basis’ and the cut off date would be October 1, 2007. Suddenly he turned around and said that the cut off date would end six days earlier, on September 25. The crowd that had gathered at the minister’s office on that day with each one jogging to be the first to get the licences was like the crowd of poor women that normally gathers in our middle level towns to collect the limited number of saris distributed free of cost.

    But, unlike the free sari crowd, the cell phone licence seeking crowd that included the richest in India, and like the former it went physical, many gate crashed, some in full suits got crushed between gates closing at 5 pm on September 25 with one foot in and one out. The only consolation was that there was no death in the stampede as happens in the free sari events. All this happened to the view of the world. The prime minister, Raja says, was consulted on this model!

    Every streetlight in Delhi knew that the difference of Rs 5,000-6,000 crore per licence or Rs 60,000-70,000 crore was shared among different players. Raja did not dole out each licence valued at Rs 8,000 crore for Rs 1,650 crore secretly. He did it in the view of all, including the prime minister. Yes, it was daylight corruption. But Raja was too small to do it all for himself or all by himself. …This prime minister is not, and will never be, a suspect here. And Raja is too small to be the sole beneficiary.

    QED: There must be a principal beneficiary more powerful whom the prime minister is duty bound to defend. He must know who that is.

  9. VIvek says:

    my dear fellow indians dont waste ur time by bothering abt india. Always think of how to give right standard of living for ur family that they deserve.for that u need more money,power ,good health and contacts.try to work hard to earn them.21st century belongs to china.so leave the future of india to Indian politicians.its nothing new in nexus between politics and business.: The business of politics is business and the business of business is managing politics”.Favors or greecing is norm in business world.it may be money or women or any other favours.so plz dont waste ur time bother abt india or abt politicians. try to bother abt ur family first and country last. Country is nothing but another political instrument used by politicians to fool people emotionally.Y should only people bother abt country and not politicians?always think of 2 things before doing anything. Its good for ur health or not. Another is it legal or not. If it is illegal u must have the power to make it legal(the way the corporates and politicians do).Todays world runs based political ethics not on dharma.So read great books like chanakya niti, onwar,the prince,5 rings, art of war etc.everybody dont forget to read the book ” the polyster princess, rise of Dhirubhai ambani.by Allen Mcdonald(which is banned in india, u will know how the business works atleast 0.1%)
    . Lot to say……. but leaving it here…..

    http://businesstoday.intoday.in/index.php?option=com_content&Itemid=1&task=view&id=12302&sectionid=25&issueid=63&page=archieve

  10. B Shantanu says:

    VIvek: Short & hurried response…This is *not* a site for India bashers (I’ve seen you other comments too)…

    If you want to help improve things, join us..otehrwise you may be better off elsewhere.

    Thanks.

  11. KSV SUBRAMANIAN says:

    What kind of vigilance is expected from a CVC when he himself is an accused in Palmolein scan in Kerala ? Perhaps he must have been appointed specifically with an intention to scuttle any probe on the massive corruption from Spectrum Scam, CWG scame etc., etc.,

    http://expressbuzz.com/nation/new-cvc-an-accused-in-palmolein-scam-in-kerala/205185.html

  12. Saran says:

    I do not follow politics very much…but a scam of this proportion is so shocking. I just read all the articles and links on this post, a daylight corruption of 1.76 lakh crore ( I cant even apprehend the number of zeros on it ), with evidence of people linked to it. Yet no one can take any action. Nobody is ready to take responsibility, to take corrective measures… the politicians dont worry about the loss..they worry about the losing power, political alliances…. Its high time the general public take some measures and prove that we can be mute spectators to anything and everything these politicians can get away with. Instead of just discussing what as happened, we need to think of measures we – THE PEOPLE should take.

  13. CHURCHILL KUMAR SHAH says:

    Dear Indians its our fault to choose leaders of such kind (A.Raja,Shashi Tharror,Suresh Kalmadi,Ashok Chavan Etc.,)and we must obey.Our Govt must put pressure on A.Raja where the money have gone?and he was refusing to resign from post of ministry.Treat Raja like animal & hand him over to CBI automatically he will open his mouth my God 1.76 lacs crores???I think this party DMK, Congress are totally hand in glove in corruption we can see blindly.why did P.M & Sonia Gandhi waiting to get decisions from Karunanidhi? main thing is to get back our 1.76 lacs crores.Our Govt must investigate serious about this matter and no party must poke their nose in this case and punish hardly all those who are involved in corruption no matter whoever He/She might be.It’s our money dear friends not politicians wake up.

  1. August 18, 2014

    […] Bhagwat has excellent coverage of political corruption in India. Read https://satyameva-jayate.org/2010/05/23/raja-radia-spectrum/ and related posts, including https://satyameva-jayate.org/2007/09/14/fixing-the-system/ Operation […]