Radia tapes controversy

The Radia tapes controversy relates to the telephonic conversations between Nira Radia, a political lobbyist^[1] and an acquaintance of the (then) Indian telecom minister A. Raja, and with senior journalists, politicians, and corporate houses,^[2] taped by the Indian Income Tax Department in 2008-09. The tapes led to accusations of misconduct by many of these people. Nira Radia used to run a public relations firm named Vaishnavi Communications,[1]^[3] whose clients include the Tata Teleservices^[4] and Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries.^[5]

Contents 1 The Radia Tapes 1.1 Politicians 1.2 Businessmen 1.3 Journalists 1.4 Industry Heads 1.5 Others 2 Political lobbying 3 Alleged media blackout and reactions in social media 4 Protests and developments 5 References

The Radia Tapes

After getting authorization from the Home Ministry, the Indian Income Tax department^[6] tapped Radia's phone lines for 300 days^[7] in 2008-2009 as part of their investigations into possible money laundering, restricted financial practices, and tax evasion.

In November 2010, OPEN magazine^[8] carried a story which reported transcripts of some of the telephone conversations of Nira Radia with senior journalists, politicians, and corporate houses, many of whom have denied the allegations.^[9] The Central Bureau of Investigation has announced that they have 5,851 recordings of phone conversations by Radia, some of which outline Radia's attempts to broker deals in relation to the 2G spectrum sale.^[10] The tapes appear to demonstrate how Radia attempted to use some media persons to influence the decision to appoint A. Raja as telecom minister.^[11]

In the recorded conversations between Nira Radia and prominent figures, referred to as the Radia Tapes, several prominent figures are heard in conversation with Radia:^[12][13]

Politicians

• A. Raja, Telecom minister at that time
• Kanimozhi, Rajya Sabha MP...
• Achari

Businessmen

• Ratan Tata, Chairman, Tata Sons;

Journalists

• Barkha Dutt, Group editor, English news, NDTV
• M.K. Venu, senior business journalist
• Prabhu Chawla,^[2][14] editor of India Today magazine
• Rajdeep Sardesai^[15][16]
• Shankar Aiyar, then with India Today Group
• Vir Sanghvi, HT advisory editorial director

Industry Heads

• Tarun Das, former CII head

Others

• Ranjan Bhattacharya^[1] (foster son-in-law of former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee)^[13][17]
• Suhel Seth,^[18] A Self-styled Celebrity who is Famous for being famous

Political lobbying

According to the transcripts of the tapes, Radia lobbied against the reappointment of Dayanidhi Maran to the post of Union IT and Communications minister.

• Radia spoke with Ms. Barkha Dutt at 0948 IST.

Dutt: 'The stalemate (between Congress and DMK) continues, ya
Radia: 'my honest advice is that you tell them (Congress) that they need to tell him (Karunanidhi) directly ..
Dutt: 'OK, let me talk to them'.^[19]

In a later conversation at 1047 IST, Barkha says that it (conveying the message to Congress) was 'not a problem' and that she would talk to Ghulam (Nabi Azad).^[20]

• Radia, in a later conversation with Ranjan Bhattacharya, who also appears to be acting as a conduit to the Congress,^[1] mentions the above conversation, where she says, 'I made Barkha call up Congress, and get a statement from Congress whether the Prime Minister has actually said that he doesn't want Baalu, which she carried that he had never said it'. She also mentions to Bhattacharya, that 'your friend Sunil Mittal, has been lobbying against Raja (for Maran).'^[21]

Alleged media blackout and reactions in social media

The news gained prominence following sustained pressure on social networking sites Twitter^[22][23] and Facebook^[24] against an attempted blackout orchestrated by many prominent Indian TV channels and newspapers.^[17][25] #barkhagate has been trending as number one topic on Twitter in India for more than a week, since the breakout of the news.^[26] According to the Washington Post, "Twitter has played an important role in launching what has become an international conversation on the issue, with the Indian diaspora weighing in".^[27]

Initially, only a handful of the mainstream newspapers in India, like The Deccan Herald,^[28] Indian Express^[2] had openly written about the tapes. Some newspapers like HT Media, Mint (the business newspaper also owned by HT media)^[29] and NDTV said "the authenticity of these transcripts cannot be ascertained".^[26][30] CNN-IBN's Sagarika Ghose discussed with a panel of experts, if the corporate lobbying is undermining democracy, on the Face the Nation programme on the channel.^[31] The Radia tapes is seen to have also made a dent in the image of the media in the country.^{[1][17][25][32][33][34][35]} "The complete blackout of the Nira Radia tapes by the entire broadcast media and most of the major English newspapers paints a truer picture of corruption in the country," wrote G Sampath, the deputy editor of the Daily News and Analysis (DNA) newspaper.^[17][36] After it became an international news, more and more media houses covered the story. The Deccan Chronicle commented, "The ‘Radia tapes’ may have torn the veil off the nexus between information hungry journalists, lobbyists and industrialists, and opened everyone’s eyes to what has long been suspected — the ability of a small but powerful group to use their connections to influence policy."^[37] The largest circulated english newspaper in the India and the world, The Times of India finally opened up on November 25, 2010, commenting "The people are showing who the boss is. The weapon in their hands is the internet, ... has seen frantic activism against "power brokering" by journalists in collusion with corporate groups and top government politicians..."^[38]

Protests and developments

Barkha Dutt, Vir Sanghvi, and others have refuted the allegations.^[9][39][40] Open Magazine maintained that the conversations were carried as they appeared in the recordings.^[41] Dutt defended her reputation through her Twitter account. "Struck by the bizarre irony of being accused of favouring a man i have never met (raja) and have always attacked in print and on TV. Gnite!," she said via one of her tweets on Twitter.^[27]

New Delhi Television Limited posted a strong rebuttal on its website terming the insinuation that Barkha lobbied for A Raja as "unsubstantiated, baseless and defamatory" and threatened action against Open Magazine.^[6][30][42]

Hindustan Times cited Sanghvi's clarifications on his website, and stated that the authenticity of these transcripts cannot be ascertained.^[43]

On 26 November 2010, Barkha Dutt released an detailed statement, addressing questions raised by the tapes, which she claims were edited.^[44]

On 27 November 2010, Vir Sanghvi released a detailed statement, clarifying his role.^[45]

Nira Radia has served a legal notice on The Pioneer, on the report titled "Tapped and Trapped" published by the newspaper. The notice asserted that The Pioneer's report regarding corruption and manipulation in the allotment of 2G spectrum to telecom operators, in so far as it referred to Radia's connections with Telecom Minister A Raja, are "absolutely false, baseless and malicious and constitute gross defamation".^[46]

The original tapes are now annexures in a Supreme Court petition seeking Raja’s prosecution. The opposition parties in India have demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the 2G spectrum scam, which could also to be extended to include a probe into the Radia tapes to ascertain the media's role in the controversy.^[11] The Government is also accused of selectively releasing merely 10 hours of the 2000 hours recorded of the Radia tapes.^[47]

The CBI in its affidavit in the Supreme Court in the 2G spectrum allocation case, on Nov 22 2010, had stated that Radia will be approached for investigation at an appropriate time.^[4] and that the probe would be completed latest by March 2011.^[48] On 24 November 2010, Nira Radia was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials^[49][50] and recorded her statements in relation to the 2G scam probe.^[51]

References