Shankar Aiyar (then with India Today Group) and Radia tapes

Shankar Aiyar--20090522-110908

Radia to Shankar Aiyar— Hi Shankar(husky voice)

Aiyar to Radia— Are you in some serious meeting or what?

Radia to Shankar—No, no,no, I saw you on air(Headlines Today), and one thing I have to tell you, Congress has not talked about Balu or Raja or anything like that,right?

Shankar to Radia— That’s what I told them last night, I don’t know whether u watched, on air, I said I am little mystified as to how everybody seems to know what the Prime Minister has said, except, the two ministers and the DMK itself—

Radia to Shankar—- and Karunanidhi!

Shankar to Radia—-Yeah, I said, if the Prime Minister has said so, the congress party should come out and say that we don’t have, express it that we don’t have any problem with these two ministers, if so, come out and say it. If you don’t say, what are you admitting that we lived with these two corrupt ministers for five years and we couldn’t do anything about it.So, maine bola yeh sab faltugiri hai(its all nonsense). Tumhare(congress) apne ministers kitne efficient the, you have lived with a disaster like Shivraj Patil for five years—

Radia to Shankar— Sushilkumar Shinde—-

Shankar to Radia— Haan,

Radia to Shankar— you know what they have done is, they have only given a hint, again only through (Dayanidhi) Maran, they are talking to the wrong people, see whats happened is, all this messages coming out that they accept Maran and they don’t want the other two. The other thing is that Azhagiri is a mass leader and basically, there is Balu, Raja and Maran, that’s how it got settled. Azhagiri MOS independent, and Kani(Kanimozhi), Independent.

Shankar to Radia— Correct

Radia to Shankar—-So the view was, and Azhagiri’s followers and DMK leaders in Tamil Nadu said that, you know, he is such a senior leader, how can you give him MOS, you take Maran out of that, or you drop Balu, because Raja , they cant because he is a dalit.Which is where that, that Selvi starting intervening and started saying that I will commit suicide and I will do this, and so the old man(M.Karunanidhi, DMK Chief and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister) is under so much pressure. See Congress told Maran, that we don’t want to give any infrastructure portfolio to either you or Balu, which he has not relayed to Karunanidhi. Problem kya hai, sab darte hai, Karunanidhi ko kaun jaake bolega.Congress is not talking directly to Karunanidhi. You(congress) have to talk to him.

Shankar to Radia—see, see the difficulty is, I have met Karunanidhi several times and despite my knowledge of tamil, several times you know, I cant understand what he says.

Radia to Shankar—ok, yes, therefore he can ask Kani, who is a neutral person

Shankar to Radia— —– I agree with you that they should talk directly to him. Kal maine us ladke, Vishal(???) ko phone karke bataya, who bola ki chintu(??) ro raha hai, sab log kyun Daya(Dayanidhi Maran) ko maante hai, maine bola ki kyunki tu frame mein nahin hai, woh bola yeh toh issue hai, toh maine bola ki dek woh, official negotiator kaun hai, declare kar do tum, sab clear ho jayega aur ensure that people know that Maran is not the official negotiator. Lekin then I found out that this English speaking party(Congress), only talks through English speaking people. Aur anyway Daya(Maran) aur Rahul(Gandhi) ka kuch business interest hai, toh this is going to be an issue.

Radia to Shankar— Whats the issue??

Shankar to Radia— Maloom nahin, software, software, kuch business interest hai dono ka. Jab yeh mantri tah(Dayanidhi Maran was Telecom Minister between 2004 and 2007) na , tab unke muh se kuch galti se nikal gaya(when he Dayanidhi was a minister by mistake it came out of his mouth)

Radia to Shankar— But it was Rahul who said he doesn’t want Dayanidhi there.

Shankar to Radia—- who? Rahul said that?

Radia to Shankar—(with emphasis) yeah.

Shankar to Radia— then toot gaya hoga, pata nahin( then it(relationship) must have broken up). Mere ko yeh, matlab, I am talking of 2006.

Radia to Shankar— No, no,I think it has changed. I know that, no no, I agree with you, the problem is that they have not said who the official negotiator is. That’s what Karunanidhi needs to do. He cant send five of them to negotiate na?

Shankar to Radia— he should tell— this is the best time to make Azhagiri and Kanimozhi the official DMK face in delhi. Bhai in dono mein, bhai tum negotiate karo bhai, who better than them?

Radia to Shankar— That’s right. But now Karunanidhi doesn’t know what’s happening, he doesn’t even know congress doesn’t want to give infrastructure portfolio to Balu or Maran, that’s why—- whatever he is seeing is he is seeing on TV. And on his(Dayanidhi Maran’s) own Sun network, he is carrying whatever he wants, that’s how silly it is. Can you imagine, tum batado apne Congresswalon ko,

Shankar to Radia— ummmm–I will—- meeting abhi chal raha hai

Shankar Aiyar-20090522-184449

Shankar to Radia— Hello

Radia to Shankar— Hii, now Times Now  is running a very nice ticker

Shankar to Radia— yes, but why they are running it?

Radia to Shankar— I told her, I said, I know you should have a sense of humour, but I don’t know you are running a comedy channel

Shankar to Radia— OK Ok

Radia to Shankar—who toh ke rahi hai ki(she is telling), I got it confirmed from confirmed sources from Congress.

Shankar to Radia— Congress ka toh lena dena nahin hai, portfolio ke bare mein(Congress has nothing to do with portfolios).

Radia to Shankar—- I told her that, kuch bhi lage hue hai, kuch bhi, inko koi gyan nahin, pata nahin hai, kaun karva raha hai, wohin hai(presumably Maran), aur kaun ho sakta hai na? I haven’t seen him (Maran) at the swearing in.

Shankar to Radia—- Kaun—?

Radia to Shankar— Wahin, Maran, haan haan.

Shankar to Radia—- Haan, Boss(presumably A.Raja as it become clear later) ko toh dekha tah(in the swearing in ceremony, incidentally only Raja attended the ceremony on behalf of DMK as the DMK was still decided about joining ministry and who should join), par I didn’t see him(Maran).

Radia to Shankar— Accha, what did Boss tell you, when you spoke to him.

Shankar to Radia— No, he said ok fine—

Radia to Shankar— no, what did he tell you finally?

Shankar to Radia—- no, no, he said basically ki, asal mein dekho, his boss, the leader(Karunanidhi) also wants him to go to telecom because of all this whole controversy(spectrum scam which was already out in the open), it is back firing, basically on Maran. Leader(Karunanidhi) he says ki, he is willing, ki now if he(Raja) doesn’t become Telecom Minister it wil look ki PM didn’t want him. But Prime Minister has officially communicated ki, with Raja in Telecom is ok with me. So there is no issue, that is the only thing. Usme toh koi issue hai hi nahin. Jayenge, kal meeting karenge, dekhenge kya hoga—

Radia to Shankar— When he is going to Tamil Nadu?

Shankar to Radia— who raat ko 8.40 p.m flight.

Radia to Shankar—- and—whats the time the meeting tomorrow?

Shankar to Radia—- That I don’t know uska mujhe kuch nahin pata.

Radia to Shankar—Accha, dekho, Amma(Kanimozhi’s mother and Karunanidhi’s third “wife”, Rajathiammal) ja rahi abhi, Karunanidhi ke ghar pe, ghar pe pahunch rahi hai.

Shankar to Radia— Acha acha—

Radia to Shankar— I will find out. Ok.

Shankar Aiyar20090522-193809

Radia to Shankar— Hii, Shankar

Shankar to Radia— Whats happening? NO deal no?

Radia to Shankar—Nahin, no deal, whats happening you know, this both Pallavi Ghosh(of NDTV) and Navika Kumar(of Timesnow), are a bit mad. You should take it off air, because the deal hasn’t happened.

Shankar to Radia—– Nahin, nahin, maine is Headlines Today(part of India Toda group) usko bola ki kuch bhi run karne se pehle mujhko pooch(I told this Headlines Today people, that before running anything(story) you ask me).

Radia to Shankar— nahin, nahin, yeh run kare rahe hai. Breaking news—

Shankar to Radia— Headlines bhi kar rahe hain?( Headlines Today is also doing it?)

Radia to Shankar— haan haan kar rahe hain, dono bhi kar rahe hai, Aaj Tak and Headlines Today(both belong to India Today group) are doing it, and the thing is that the meeting hasn’t taken place today. They are waiting for Raja to come back tonight and Kani is also coming back tonight(to Chennai). She left at 5 p.m, and Raja is leaving now, after the swearing in. He was nominated to just attend the swearing in( Shankar—ummm), kuch, kal saade gyraha baje meeting hoga(tomorrow 11.30 a.m will be the meeting) and then they will decide. Its very clear and Prime Minister has just reached out to DMK( Shankar—ummm), and they(DMK) said that they(Congress) have made a reasonable offer and we wil resolve in a few days. Obviously PM hasn’t done, you know, I know Kani just landed in Chennai, and I know still nothing has happened.(Shankar—-ummm), yeh lage hue hai unnecessarily, I don’t who is behind.

Shankar to Radia—- Theek hai, main phono chalata hoon(I will run a phone in on Headlines Today).

Radia to Shankar— ek aur baat hai, haan kar lo, ek aur baat hai, listen Sunil(Mittal of Airtel) and all are very active to get Maran there(Telecom Ministry).

Shankar to Radia—- dekho main pehle se bol raha tah ki( see I have been telling from the beginning, that) , tum Kani se bataya ki nahin ki yeh (Maran) badmaash hai, yeh misrepresentation karta rahta hai.

Radia to Shankar— Haan bol diya, aaj , aaj CM(Karunanidhi) ko bhi pata lag gaya. (Shankar— haan), See he(Maran) went and told Chief Minister that Ahmed Patel(Key aide of Congress President Sonia Gandhi) has asked me to stay back(for swearing in ceremony of the new cabinet of UPA II), so Chief Minister told him(Maran), then you join Congress(ha ha). He told him, see, you cannot attend the swearing in, only Raja can attend. (Shankar—ummm), so he(Maran) couldn’t handle that. Usne kal bhi confuse kar diya, nahin kal hi deal ho jaata(he confused them yesterday also, otherwise the deal would have been finalise yesterday only). Usne bola ki last time we did it in 2004, you should try for it now again.

Shankar to Radia—- Nahin, who unki taraf se batting kar raha isliye itna lafda ho raha hai( He is batting on their behalf that’s why so much confusion).

Radia to Shankar—- kinki taraf se?

Shankar to Radia—- Congress ki taraf se(ha ha ha).

Radia to Shankar—-(serious tone) he is doing for Sunil Mittal (Airtel Chief), na, he is doing that. Let me tell you when Karunanidhi was here, I was with him in Tamil Nadu house, he was very clear and you must know this (Shankar—ummm), he was saying that there was so much controversy on Raja, he was telling of course to Kani and she was translating, because there is so much controversy on Raja, I cannot let anybody believe that it was wrong. Therefore Raja will come back as Telecom Minister. (Shankar—ummmm), and he told that to Prime Minister also.

Shankar to Radia— Main toh, unko aane de wapas

Ranjan Bhattacharya - Nira Radia Tapes

Ranjan Bhattacharya speaking about appointment of Raja

16-Cong Apni Dukan20090522-170040

• Quotes Mukesh Ambani: ‘Haan yaar, you know Ranjan, you’re right, ab to Congress apni dukaan hai (now the Congress is our shop).’

Ranjan Bhattacharya: Oh okay, so let me understand what you are saying, the family guys are okay to get MoS, more or less.

Niira Radia:  Both the…

Ranjan Bhattacharya: Provided, provided this Maran boy does not get cabinet, right?

Niira Radia:  Correct, correct.

Ranjan Bhattacharya: And they are best, there are people outside the family and outside the Congress who are pushing for Maran, right?

Niira Radia:  And Sunil Mittal’s name is one of them.

Ranjan Bhattacharya: Listen I, I mean talking to Sunil is no point because obviously he has got this thing. Between you and me, I have a great line to Ghulam Nabi, for whatever he counts.

Niira Radia:  I have been sending him a message since morning, I told Mukesh also to speak to him and tell him to speak to Kani, because Kani will take him directly to her father. They really spoiled it for themselves because they could have got away with two cabinet berths.

Ranjan Bhattacharya: Ab unke tiin dene paRenge

Niira Radia:  Ab tiin dene paRenge. Yeh Baalu ko bhi drop karvaa sakte thhe kyuunki unhe keh sakte thhe Thiik hai, now they have to go through the whole process of three. They will have to be… again this whole argument that will happen, ke tiin mein kaun include ho. Raja include hogaa, Alagiri include hogaa, Maran ko include karenge, toh baki tumhaare Tamil leaders jo is baari electionsjiit ke aayenge voh kahenge hamara kya hoga

Ranjan Bhattacharya: I mean exactly aur yeh toh biich mein bhag gayaa thha

Niira Radia:  Maran was the big challenge, and not because I do not like the guy, but genuinely that was a big problem. Maran kept on saying that both Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ahmed Patel have said to him that he, they want him to be in the Cabinet and that he is the only who is an acceptable face.

Ranjan Bhattacharya: I do not think. How can a Congress guy, I mean if somebody had told me PM has said it or Sonia said it... How can a Ghulam Nabi or Ahmed Patel insist on [it]? It is like saying aapke ghar mein main tai karun

Niira Radia:  Unhone insist nahiiN kiyaa hai, unhone kahaa hai humko Congress ko kya acceptable hai woh hai Dayanidhi Maran, so Karunanidhi got awfully confused. The second thing that came up with Congress… said well but Karunanidhi took Maran with him to the UPA meeting, that is because Kani had disappeared, visited somewhere else, and he does not consider woh toh Chennai mein kissi ko bhi apne saath le jaata hai

Ranjan Bhattacharya: Exactly, aisaa kyaa hai, usse koi angrezi, ungrezi samajhne waala bhi chahiye

Niira Radia:  Toh usko isliye le ke gayaa thha kyuunki Baalu nahin thha. Kani was not available. Well, he had not, and no one person has been appointed to negotiate, Maran is not the point person to negotiate.

Ranjan Bhattacharya: Achcha aisa hai, yeh toh abhi jaa raha hai apni swearing-in pe, meri abhi kisi se baat hui toh Ghulam, GNA, is being sworn in, naa [It is like this, he is going for his swearing-in, I just spoke to someone, Ghulam, GNA is being sworn in, no].

Niira Radia:  What is he getting?

Ranjan Bhattacharya: Bhai, they are not admitting it, mil toh raha hai aur usko liya bhi iss liye jaa raha hai, he is getting Parliamentary Affairs basically. Being a senior guy, he will be basically Parliamentary Affairs Minister… only has job for three months, nau mahiine kya karegaa. So he is lobbying for something, but abhii tak inhone tai toh nahin kiya

Niira Radia:  Tell them to give him aviation, Praful ko baahar rakho

Ranjan Bhattacharya: Nahin, Praful ne toh raat ko itna drama kiyaa; apparently, they toh at midnight jaa ke Praful ko aviation bolaa hai, par Praful ki aaj swearing-in nahin hai

Niira Radia:  Yeah, I know that.

Ranjan Bhattacharya: Inki sabki Tuesday ki hai.

Niira Radia:  MoS hai.

Ranjan Bhattacharya: MoS hai, independent.

Ranjan Bhattacharya: Aur mujhko Ramesh Sharma called up bahut achcha hai hamare Anand Sharma ho rahein hain, my information is Anand Sharma nahin hain

Niira Radia:  Anand Sharma hai isme

Ranjan Bhattacharya: Nahin hai, yeh sab media ne…

Niira Radia:  Mujhe Mukesh ne bola

Ranjan Bhattacharya: Chalo dekhte hain, mere ko nahiiN lagtaa hai

Niira Radia:  Elevated to Cabinet.

Ranjan Bhattacharya: Nahin, Cabinet, par abhii aaj uskaa abhii media chalaa rahaa hai at least tiin ghante pehle tak naa usko chithhi aai thhi, naa Mukul Wasnik ko chithhi aai thhi

Niira Radia:  Achcha

Ranjan Bhattacharya: But I don’t know.

Niira Radia:  …

Ranjan Bhattacharya: So is Mukesh happy?

Niira Radia:  Very happy.

Ranjan Bhattacharya: (Laughs) You know what he told me.

Niira Radia:  What?

Ranjan Bhattacharya: He tells me, he says, you know, he is in his usual style, kya kyo, I told him ‘Mera chhodo, kya kyo, aapko kya hai

Niira Radia:  Hmm

Ranjan Bhattacharya: He says, Sir, theek hai. I said, Mukesh, once in a while show some bloody emotion. Aapka to sab kaam ho gaya (all your work’s been done).

Niira Radia:  Hmm.

Ranjan Bhattacharya: Motu nahin aaya, yeh nahin hua (fatty didn’t make it). He replied, ‘Haan yaar, you know Ranjan, you’re right, ab to Congress apni dukaan hai (now the Congress is our shop).’

Niira Radia:  (Laughs) Why has Bhardwaj not come in?

Ranjan Bhattacharya: Who?

Niira Radia:  Bhardwaj?

Ranjan Bhattacharya: Who is not coming, sorry?

Niira Radia:  Bhardwaj, Bhardwaj

Ranjan Bhattacharya: I cannot understand, sorry.

Niira Radia:  Bhardwaj, law minister.

Ranjan Bhattacharya: Bharadwaj. Oh yeah, he has done such a lot of kabaaRaa, and especially in those two cases now where CBI then botched it up in both the DA ke assets. These are all under law ministries instructions, so they are pretty pissed off with him. I think they are also now getting in the core guys and then the youngsters, but now I wonder who will get law; will Kapil get it?

Niira Radia:  I wonder, I wonder, maybe Kapil only.

Ranjan Bhattacharya: Um, hmm?

Niira Radia:  Maybe.

Ranjan Bhattacharya: But lawyer toh wohi hai par

Niira Radia:  Oh yes. No, Ranjan, when you speak to Ghulam, you should tell him that they really messed it up, haan?

Ranjan Bhattacharya: No, so now basically you want me to convey ki aap Kanimozhi ke through jaa ke buddhe ko seedha milo, yai hai na.

Niira Radia:  Agar tum log jo list tumhe bheji thhi uspe agar Baalu or Maran ko mana kar dete toh tumhaaraa problem solve ho jaataa

Ranjan Bhattacharya: Bhai, ab toh woh nahin hua toh ab kya karna hai

Niira Radia:  Abhi unko Kanimozhi ke paas they have to call her and go directly and meet Karunanidhi. They have to relay two things, they do not want to give infrastructure to Baalu or Maran.

Niira Radia:  They have no issue where Raja is concerned, kyuunki unhe pataa hi hai even if they have an issue, the old man is going to bring Raja; he is very clear about that. So don’t antagonise him, because he has got Dalit as now they will have to give Alagiri one, Raja one and one maybe they will give to another leader from Tamil Nadu, or they will, just so that they keep this whole controversy out, they will give it to Baalu only, and then drop Maran altogether and give Kani an independent charge.

Ranjan Bhattacharya: So Alagiri independent charge or Cabinet, they are okay with it.

Niira Radia:  Alagiri in Cabinet because tiin ho gayaa toh Alagiri ko denaa hi paRegaa

Ranjan Bhattacharya: Okay, but this will happen only late, it will only happen late night.

Niira Radia:  Yeah, but if they keep Maran out, maybe they will be able to still get away with two.

Ranjan Bhattacharya: Oh, okay.

Niira Radia:  Which will then make this guy come out quite well by Karunanidhi, by saying, ‘Forget about what the channels are saying about me, or Jayalalitha is saying, both my children are taking MoS independent and I am bringing Baalu and Raja to be the cabinet ministers, they are not my family.’

Ranjan Bhattacharya: Okay, now listen, I mean GNA channel is there, if I send word straight to SG, is that better?

Niira Radia:  SG is kaun?

Ranjan Bhattacharya: (Laughs) SG is SG boss.

Niira Radia:  Oh, beg your pardon, sorry I didn’t get, haan ya, ya, bhejwa doh

Ranjan Bhattacharya: Because that then I can achieve in the morning. I am meeting somebody.

Niira Radia:  Par tum isko GNA ko bhi bol doh [you tell this to GNA as well], he is handling Tamil Nadu.

Ranjan Bhattacharya: I know, Thiik hai

Niira Radia:  Tell him they are being misled by this guy Maran.

Ranjan Bhattacharya: Okay.


http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?268068

Corruption Goes South

Corruption bears its own stereotypes. One such morsel which had floated happily for years was that the south was cleaner than the north. The argument held that to see corruption in all its intensity, one one had to walk through Bihar or UP. The south lived sanitised under the umbrella of this certificate for decades.

The first signs that something was different came with the DMK regimes. According to a senior journalist, the south rationalised corruption, raising it to a new level of literacy. It brought a different logic and rationale to it. It created the idea of corruption as distributive justice. Electoral politics and the battle for equality had created new regimes which saw corruption as a form of musical chairs. The refrain went, “You had your chance, it is our turn now.” Any critique was seen as a form of governance envy. Any attempt to remove a corrupt OBC or Dalit politician was seen as an attack on the community rather than an invocation of the rule of law. Attack Raja and he summons his caste origins as a protective shield. There is an irony to the process because progressive politics and the openness of politics have actually created new compost heaps for corruption.

It is true that bureaucratic systems in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu were more efficient. But that very logic enabled corruption to be much more systematic. One apocryphal story goes that after an electoral defeat, M. Karunanidhi asked a local journalist what would be the level of acceptable corruption to the electorate. Legend attributes to him the idea of sustainable corruption. The concept is not in Brundtland’s monograph but should be seen as a part of any new addendum. The idea is acute and ecological. The metaphor is clear. It brings a new sensitivity, a method to what was till then an arbitrary, over-extractive primary economy. Corruption became orderly. There was a sense of it as an information system. A file was open or closed as an information system depending on the fee paid. This logic worked like a great chain of being through the entire system. Our politicians from Jharkhand are hit-and-run compared to the management models in the south. The beauty of the southern system is that it hybridises the modern and the traditional. Each party would have its bagman, its thug and its investor. The first collected, the second extracted and the third diverted it to create a continuing miracle of the loaves and the fishes. It is a secular language, easily understandable, needing no translation.

Yet corruption is not just in the creamy layer of the DMK leadership, the Reddys, the electoral politicians of Karnataka playing the politics of the last “resort”. It is the only development project with a successful trickledown effect.

Think of simple examples. The first was related to me by an IAS officer. He told me he was doing some work after retirement and he discovered a school where the teacher had not turned up for months but collected his salary punctually. He said there was nothing one could do as the records were immaculate. During the discussion someone pointed out the difference between the north and south. In the south, the system works on paper. Teachers are paid. In Bihar, there are schools where teachers have not been paid for years. It is the difference between a sustainable and extractive form of corruption. In one, corruption is a way of life; in the other, it is constructed as a form of moral luck that accompanies a position in politics.

Let me cite a trivial example. A few years ago at a medical centre for the poor at Chennai, the domestic servant visiting it gives a rupee to the chowkidar as she enters and then with greater gratitude gives another rupee as she leaves to the chowkidar at the exit gate. What the south has done is to take Amartya Sen’s idea of entitlements and adapted it to corruption. A bribe is part of the entitlement of a job. It guarantees a movement from subsistence to sustainability. It is not the absolute power of thugs that corrupts absolutely. It is this infinitesimal location of power as an ecology where the minnows and sharks have created a chain of being where the shark might tax the minnow but both feed on the people like contented piranhas.

The folk paradigm for honesty in the south was Visvesvaraya. Legend has it that the legendary engineer had separated the official and the personal to obsessiveness, carrying an official and a personal pen. The current CM Yediyurappa represents a dissolution of the paradigm, constructing the state as an extension of the family. To Visvesvaraya, character-building, nation-building and dam-building were parallel activities. To the new regimes of the south, such an idea is laughable. The State is only a commons to be shared by a kinship chart. The family has subverted the state into a mining economy that even the Reddys cannot match.

The story of how a woman from nowhere had an entire country wired

NIIRA RADIA, the lobbyist at the heart of India’s audacious multibillion telecom swindle, inaugurated a Krishna temple she funded in south Delhi on her birthday — that, interestingly, coincides with Indira Gandhi’s.

Those present on the occasion said Radia prayed for long, presumably seeking divine intervention to wriggle out of the country’s biggest scandal. Before the temple visit, notices from the country’s Enforcement Directorate (ED), Income Tax (IT) Department and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had reached her farmhouse on the fringes of south Delhi. The farmhouse is known to host both religious feasts and late night parties, to which Delhi’s swish set flock in equal numbers.

Time will tell whether the prayers will help Radia, the only female lobbyist among Delhi’s top-of-the-line power brokers. A picture of grace in both saris and business suits, her grasp of both human psychology and technical jargon gives her a comfort level with the rich and powerful as well as wannabes.

She grew with the BJP, made inroads into the Congress inner circle, and vibed well with the CPM. But she alienated her own staff with her workaholism, constantly egging them on with the Nike tagline, “Just do it”. Her personal wealth is whispered to be around Rs. 500 crore but that is difficult to establish.

Interestingly, in what started out as a telephone tap by the IT Department’s Directorate General of Investigations to probe violations related to TDS (tax deducted at source) has turned into a fullscale, multi-agency inquiry by the government about whether Radia is so embedded in Delhi’s politics that she can make/unmake ministers or manipulate government policy to suit powerful corporate clients.

What the ED is trying to establish is the money trails that seem to wind through her corporate communications venture. Knowing this, she avoided, on medical grounds, the first set of notices sent to her, using the time to get politicians in Uttar Pradesh to silence the bureaucrats from that state’s cadre who are investigating the scam. But no one wants to get embroiled in the Rs. 1.76 lakh crore telecom scam.

Encouraged by her political isolation, the investigating agencies sent her another set of notices demanding — this time in strong language — her presence for a detailed probe. Perhaps to avoid the media, she landed at the ED office at 9.15 am on 24 November, even before her interrogators reported for work. “We are investigating what could be one of India’s biggest scandals,” is all Rajeshwar Singh, a top investigator with the ED, was willing to tell TEHELKA. By the time she emerged from the office, the media had arrived in full force, and she addressed the barrage of questions with the polish and panache expected of a public relations professional. Which means, of course, that she smoothly gave the impression of being willing to cooperate without actually giving any real information away.

CBI OFFICIALS claim they have evidence that she once worked with data servers hosted out of Ukraine and had latest Israeli anti-surveillance gizmos running on the telephones used by her and her close aides. The agency has in its possession 180 hours of candid conversations that Radia, as chairperson of Vaishnavi Corporate Communications — and its sister organisations like Vitcom, Neucomp, and Neosys — had with politicians, bureaucrats and a handful of high-profile journalists. These could put her at the heart of the telecom scam that claimed the cabinet berth of Andimuthu Raja, who is accused of selling lucrative licences at dirt-cheap prices.

The CBI is also probing what it calls her nexus with a slew of former bureaucrats whose brains she picked to bend rules to the benefit of her clients. These included conglomerates like the Tatas, Reliance, ITC and Mahindras, and big-bucks entities like Lavasa, Star TV, Unitech, Elder Health Care, Haldia Petrochemicals, Emami and the HIV/AIDS initiative of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

This week, one of her confidants, Pradip Baijal, the former telecom and disinvestment secretary who started the country’s much-hyped disinvestment process, was questioned by the CBI for over four hours for his alleged investments in African nations like Guinea and Senegal.

“The charges are serious,” admits ED’s Rajeshwar Singh, refusing to reveal details. CBI and ED officials told TEHELKA that there is enough evidence to prove Radia’s links with retired bureaucrats like Ajay Dua, former secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), CM Vasudev, former finance secretary, SK Narula, former Airports Authority of India chairman, and Akbar Jung, the former civil aviation secretary.

The IT investigations revealed that apart from managing the telecom licences for builder Unitech, among others, Radia also handled and facilitated cross-border transfer of funds. Intercepted conversations between Radia and the allottees of the new telecom licences suggest that she was a key adviser in staggering the inflow of funds from outside India so that no impression could be created that there was a windfall gain to the companies.

ED officials have told TEHELKA they have evidence that Radia was instrumental in sourcing funds — as much as 1,600 crore — for Unitech, one of the controversial beneficiaries of the telecom licences. The company eventually sold a majority stake in the telecom venture to Norway’s Telenor for seven times the licence fee it paid.

Worse, some of the conversations link Radia to Anil Agarwal of the London-based Vedanta group that has drawn flak for violating environmental norms at its billion-dollar mining projects in Orissa’s Lanjigarh district.

It is reliably learnt that the Vendanta group used Radia to erase what it claimed was a negative mindset about the group and its operations in India. As a result, expensive advertisements extolling the virtues of Vedanta were published in newspapers and newsmagazines. But these did not cut much ice since the project was scrapped by environment minister Jairam Ramesh.

Tellingly, the tapes also establish her links with Sunil Arora, an IAS officer based in Rajasthan and used by Radia to gain access to his batchmates in various ministries. The conversations are a part of the CBI notes to the Supreme Court.

Arora, who sacrificed his second tenure as chairman and managing director (CMD) of Indian Airlines by attempting to blow the whistle on Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, seems to have opened many doors for Radia across India. During his tenure as the CMD of Indian Airlines (2003-05), seven aircraft leases were found to have been channelled to companies that had Radia’s front companies acting as agents. “We have evidence that substantial payments were made to Arora’s Meerut-based brother by Radia’s company,” said Akshat Jain, a senior IT official.

For the record, Niira was born to Sudesh and Iqbal Memon, a trader who was born a Hindu, on 19 November 1960. Niira — the extra ‘i’ was added on the advice of numerologists — and her family had to flee Africa around the time of the fall of Idi Amin. Once touted as an emerging competitor to infamous gun dealer Adnan Khashoggi, Memon changed track in London and opened an aviation lease broking business.

The natural heir to the family business, Radia also worked with Scotland Yard on a job-to-job basis providing escort cover to its young recruits. In London, she married Janak Radia of a wealthy trading family. At some point, she was also marestried to the grandson of Rao Birendra Singh, Haryana’s chief minister in the 1960s, and went by the name of Niira Yadav.

In 1996, Radia fled to India from UK after a host of shell companies with paid-up capital as low as £100 went bust and came under scrutiny for money laundering.

First she worked with Sahara supremo Subrata Roy’s blue-eyed boy Uttam Kumar Bose, who was managing Air Sahara. “She worked with us for some time,” admits Abhijit Sarkar, one of the directors of Sahara India. But Bose fell out of favour with Roy when aircraft lease rentals were found to be as much as 50 per cent higher than market rates. Thereafter, Radia ventured out on her own. She harboured an ambition to take over the defunct ModiLuft and rename it Magic Air, but failed to get the necessary clearances.

Undaunted, she tied up with aircraft leasing companies to get planes at the lowest prices and secured in-principle approvals for parking slots and peak time schedules between metros from the stateowned Airports Authority of India (AAI). However, at every step she was outwitted by the powerful private airlines lobby that ensured that her Gulf-based financiers pulled out. The crack team of pilots and aviation professionals she had picked up from leading airlines, including Malaysian Airlines, disintegrated after a long frustrating standby.

There are many who claim Radia still nurses a grudge against Jet Airways head Naresh Goyal and Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel for bringing her flights of fancy to naught. While Radia never got security clearance as the promoter for Crown Air, she came in close contact with the then aviation minister Ananth Kumar of the BJP.

Sources in the BJP leadership point out that Radia decided that Crown Air had reached a dead end when she got clear signals from the PMO that Kumar was under a cloud. Nevertheless, Radia managed to get a large tract of land at unbelievably low prices during the NDA regime in the name of Sudesh Foundation, a charity in her late mother’s memory.

An old IB report points that some of the objections against giving security clearance to Radia came from her dealings with a Mumbai-based person of doubtful background, Chandu Panjabi, who was also close to the first family of the Shiv Sena.

Radia played a role in funding Agnisaakshi, a movie produced by Binda Thackeray, son of Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray. Panjabi was close to the Thackeray family and is tipped to have been a former part-owner of Sea Rock Hotel in Bandra. (Sea Rock was one of the sites bombed in the 1992 serial blasts in the city. The property, which changed hands multiple times, is now run by the Tata Group’s Indian Hotels Company.)

With a never-say-die attitude and assiduous networking, Radia developed a close rapport with Singapore Airlines, helping it set up a maintenance, repair and overhaul facility in India. The change in government policy that disallowed foreign airlines to enter India was also rumoured to have been at the behest of her foes Goyal and Patel.

RADIA’S CHARISMA, connect with bureaucrats and politicians and alliance with Kumar opened many doors for her in Delhi’s bhawans. A former AAI chairman and a powerful bureaucrat during the NDA government, SK Narula, remains a close ally post-retirement, handling some crucial government liaisons on her behalf.

It is believed that the late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan played a crucial role in helping the Tata-led management invest Rs. 1,200 crore of VSNL’s reserves in the ailing Tata Teleservices. Radia, after three-four long meetings with Mahajan, not only managed to build bridges between him (then telecom minister) and the Tata group, but also ensured that the VSNL board proposal — earlier termed as asset stripping by Mahajan — got cleared with minor modifications.

Radia’s biggest break came when she got acquainted with Ratan Tata’s close aide RK Krishna Kumar, the man trusted by Tata to translate his airline dreams into reality.

The Tata-Singapore Airlines alliance failed but soon Radia made her bigger debut in the world of public relations — she had earlier owned an agency called The Big League — and formed Vaishnavi, which got the mandate to handle all Tata companies. With the name of India’s most respected business house behind her, Radia started a new journey and shaped her company into an eight-city operation.

When the Tata Group wanted criminal proceedings to be initiated against Dilip Pendse of Tata Finance and these attempts were foiled by his playing the ‘Marathi Manoos’ card, he was picked up by the Economic Offences Wing of Delhi Police in a much smaller case. He alleged the show was directed by none other than Radia, for one of the key aspects of her strategy was to establish inroads in the police department, an instrument she uses subtly yet frequently to settle scores. So much so, a staffer has been deployed for the past eight years only to maintain rapport with ground-level policemen while Radia chats up senior officials. Having a hotline with top IPS officers in important cities is, in fact, a USP Radia offers her clients.

FORMER DELHI Commissioner of Police KK Paul was a close friend of Radia’s, and got his post under the NDA four months before the Congress-led UPA came to power. When a former Maharashtra DGP was made to quit the post of Mumbai Police Commissioner overnight in February 2007, there was a strong buzz that Radia was lobbying hard to get him a plush posting at the CBI or an intelligence agency in Delhi. Intelligence sources do not rule out Radia’s hand in the controversy surrounding former Mumbai police commissioner Hassan Gafoor, who was the top choice to become Maharashtra DGP before a damaging interview appeared in a leading weekly magazine. The beneficiary of the Gafoor controversy was none other than Anami Narayan Roy, a close relative of Tata Motors chief Ravi Kant.

While the reason given for Roy’s exit as Mumbai police commissioner was the change of Mumbai Police logo without approvals, there is a strong buzz that he came under scrutiny for helping Tata Communications in a case where there was prima facie evidence of the company providing back-end infrastructure and being in full knowledge of an illegal international calling operation being run out of Larsen & Toubro’s information technology arm’s premises in Mumbai. The investigating team, including Mumbai Police’s brightest sleuth Kishore Gayake — who had spearheaded the investigation — was transferred from Unit 8 of the Crime Branch overnight and later resigned under protest. Incidentally, Roy stays in a plush South Mumbai residential complex, with three-four bigwigs of the Tata group, including Kant, as neighbours.

Interestingly, Radia revived her dream of a commercial airline in late 2004 and brought in a team of aviation professionals, yet again from Malaysian Airlines, headed by Ng Fook Meng, who was a part of the erstwhile Crown Air and was denied security approval by the Indian government. In spite of her bête noire Praful Patel being the aviation minister and Ajay Prasad the secretary, the optimistic Radia took the plunge in a battle she finally had to give up after 14 months of efforts.

It was around this time that Radia fought a bitter, hostile battle with Dayanidhi Maran, who was upset with Ratan Tata’s reported patronage of maverick businessman C Sivasankaran. The enterprising Radia located a confidant of DMK chief M Karunanidhi’s wife Rajathi Ammal, and developed a rapport with her in the course of a number of visits to Chennai. Her biggest break came when a rift developed between the Marans and the Karunanidhi family, which resulted in the suave and progressive Dayanidhi Maran’s unceremonious exit from the telecom ministry. It is believed that Radia once flew to Chennai and organised a closed-door meeting between the DMK supremo, his son MK Stalin and Tata.

Radia is believed to have engineered a privilege motion against Praful Patel in Parliament’s monsoon session of 2005. An unheard of periodical, UT Independent, saw a sudden increase in circulation after dubbing the suave Patel India’s bidi king.

The biggest missing link in Radia’s operation was a full-fledged “think tank” that would take her to the big league of reasoned lobbying. Former AAI CMD Narula, who was parked in Radia’s Magic Air hangar, came handy in building inroads to top-level bureaucrats, who in their mid- 50s start looking for post-retirement opportunities with corporate India.

Despite Radia’s magic not working on former AAI executive director Gurcharan Bhatura, Narula is believed to have been the key man in getting two high-profile bureaucrats in Radia’s corner.

Poles apart, the controversial Baijal and the low-profile Vasudev, the former DIPP (Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion) secretary, were good cornerstones of Radia’s dreams of managing the bureaucracy. Rewarding Narula for having stuck around — he was also the non-executive chairmanship of Magic Air — Radia floated Neosys with Baijal, Vasudev and Narula as partners. In no time, a couple of Chinese companies including telecom major Huawei were being advised by Radia’s company.

THE SUDDEN rise of Radia, her frequent visits to Singapore and the prospective investors from West Asia and the Asia-Pacific raised many an eyebrow. Reportedly, some of the large cash transactions were found to be routed through a code name resembling hers.

At the same time, her unhindered growth surprised many. Windfall gains came from managing a massive Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) public relations mandate from Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man. Radia formed Neucom to manage the RIL account. With India’s two largest industrialists in her fold, earning her a rumoured Rs 100 crore per annum, Radia left every established player far behind within six years of setting up shop.

Like some other public relations firms based in Delhi, Radia too branched out from working with corporates to doing PR for state governments. She worked closely with Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief Chandrababu Naidu and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Naidu hired Radia for “strategic PR counsel” for Andhra Pradesh during his last stint while it is rumoured that she was instrumental in getting Tata’s Nano project out of a volatile Bengal and into Gujarat.

If the spectrum scam weren’t so big, with its potential to swallow many careers, one would say that this savvy survivor has enough fire in her belly to keep going. But the business she is in requires the confidence of both politicians and corporates and they’re in it for money, not love. Besides, it doesn’t pay to work with someone whose image is sullied.

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main48.asp?filename=Ne041210Coverstory.asp

Niira Discussing a BJP revolt with Navika Kumar of Times Now

BJP-Revolt-20090610-154248

Discussing a BJP revolt and LK Advani coterie with Navika Kumar of Times Now, telling her not to pass on info to Arun Jaitley

Navika to Radia— Hiiii Niira, how are you?

Radia to Navika—- Hiii, am fine, suno aaj BJP ki meeting hai, paanch baje(heard there is a BJP meeting at 5 p.m),

Navika to Radia—kis baat pe(on what issue?)

Radia to Navika— tu phone na karna kisiko pehle(you don’t call up anyone, firstly)

Navika to Radia—-Nahin karoongi, who is interested in what meeting BJP is doing now.

Radia to Navika— accha main paanch baje tumhe news doongi, use pehle nahin( OK, I will give you some news at 5 p.m, not before that)

Navika to Radia— accha bata dena yaaaar, main kisike nahin boloongi( tell me, yaaar, I wont tell anyone)

Radia to Navika—-nahin tum Arun Jaitley ko phone karke bol dogi na( no, you will call up Arun Jaitley and tell him no)

Navika to Radia— nahiiiin boloongi na(I wont tell na), bilkul nahin boloongi,(definitely I wont tell), promise.

Radia to Navika—– sure

Navika to Radia— Haan, haan , promise

Radia to Navika—- na, but Arun Jaitley is your friend na.

Navika to Radia— Who toh sab mere friends hai yaar. I wont call anyone.

Radia to Navika— Mujhe toh lag raha hai revolt(in BJP) hone wala hai.(I get the feeling there will be a revolt today)

Navika to Radia—- By whom?

Radia to Navika— Main tumhe paanch baje bataoongi( I will tell you at 5 p.m)

Navika to Radia— Nahin, nahin, bata de yaaar, main nahin kahoongi kisise (no, no, tell me yaar, I wont tell anyone)

Radia to Navika—- Nahin nahin, abhi main bata nahin sakoongi( no, no, I wont be able to tell you now)

Navika to Radia— arre bata dena yaar, main kisiko nahin kahoongi( tell me no, I wont tell anybody). Niira you can trust me yaar, itti badi badi baatein tumne mujhe batayi hain( you have told me so many big big things). Have I let you down on anyone?

Radia to Navika—- Just one second, ok, Jaswant Singh.

Navika to Radia—(ha ha) woh kya keh raha hai?( whats he saying?)

Radia to Navika— keh raha hai ki accountability nahin hai( he is saying that there is no accountability) basically he is saying that honest system nahin hai, feedback system nahin hai. Everything is brushed under the carpet, it’s a cabal of only five six people , and rewards are also shared between the cabal. Rajasthan was a disaster, no follow up. Basically whats happening, arre paanch baje se pehle kuch na karna( before 5 p.m don’t do anything.

Navika to Radia— nahin nahin, nahin karoongi.

Radia to Navika— aur basically there is a revolt that is starting in BJP. Against the top leadership, includes Rajnath, includes Advani, Venkaiah , whole group of people around Advani. Aur Jaswant Singh shuru karega usko.

Navika to Radia— Against Arun Jaitley also, or Arun Jaitley wll be part of the revolt?

Radia to Navika—- nahin Arun Jaitley, dekho na, Arun Jaitley, Narendra Modi, Ananth Kumar, Venkaiah, yeh sab coterie hai na, Advani ka.

Navika to Radia— Good , good, good, the need some thrashing it out.

Radia to Navika—ya,Sudhindra Kulkarni, all part of the coterie na, they think there is no democracy in the party. Basically Rajnath and his own group, Advani and his own group and Arun Jaitley, Narendra Modi and all, you know, have between them all destroyed the party.

Navika to Radia— and Jaswant Singh will put it together?(ha ha ha)

Radia to Navika— Maybe he wont, but somebody is leading the revolt na? to shake up the system——-

Radia to Navika—- Paanch baje se pehle na karna, usko pehle gusne de meeting ke andar, main tumhe batati hoon( don’t do anything before 5 p.m, let him first enter the meeting, then I will tell you) ——

Navika to Radia—- are you in town? I thought you would be holidaying in some nice place ya! London, Switzerland—

Radia to Navika— Holiday karne ke liye time kahan hai yaar.

Navika to Radia— People who can afford also don’t take holidays, mujhe bahut dukh hota hai(ha ha) (Both have a hearty laugh) Its not worth having so much money, yaar.

Radia to Navika— Honestly I will tell you, I also feel so.

Navika to Radia—- itna kamaya, iska fayda kya ( both laugh heartily again)

Radia to Navika— seriously, ha ha, I am going to have presentations in Bombay next week, yaar.

Navika to Radia— How boring, how boring, ah! Get a life! (both laugh heartily again) Ok, lets meet for lunch this week.

Radia to Navika— Ok, main idhar hoon, mujhe phone kar dena.

Navika to Radia—- lets do, what is today, Wednesday, lets do Thursday, Friday whatever.

Radia to Navika—– Friday karte hain, late haan,

Navika to Radia— Friday do baje( 2 p.m)

Radia to Navika—- Friday kar lete hai.

Navika to Radia— haan haan, perfect!

 Ganu-RahulisnotdoingstoryinET-20090705-101150.mp3

Ganu-upset over GVK story not on first page-20090707-224120