Radia tapes controversy
Encyclopedia
The Radia tapes controversy relates to the telephonic conversations between Nira Radia, a political lobbyist and an acquaintance of the (then) India
n telecom minister A. Raja
, and with senior journalists, politicians, and corporate houses, 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,http://business-standard.com/india/news/radia-shuts-vaishnavi/454061/ whose clients include the Tata Teleservices and Mukesh Ambani
’s Reliance Industries
.
, the Indian Income Tax department tapped Radia's phone lines for 300 days in 2008-2009 as part of their investigations into possible money laundering, restricted financial practices, and tax evasion.
In November 2010, OPEN magazine
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. 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. The tapes appear to demonstrate how Radia attempted to use some media persons to influence the decision to appoint A. Raja as telecom minister.
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:
to the post of Union IT and Communications minister.
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'.
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).
and Facebook
against an attempted blackout orchestrated by many prominent Indian TV channels and newspapers. #barkhagate has been trending as number one topic on Twitter in India for more than a week, since the breakout of the news. 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".
Initially, only a handful of the mainstream newspapers in India, like The Deccan Herald
, Indian Express had openly written about the tapes. Some newspapers like HT Media, Mint (the business newspaper also owned by HT media) and NDTV
said "the authenticity of these transcripts cannot be ascertained". 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. The Radia tapes is seen to have also made a dent in the image of the media in the country. "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. . 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." 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..."
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.
Hindustan Times
cited Sanghvi's clarifications on his website, and stated that the authenticity of these transcripts cannot be ascertained.
On 26 November 2010, Barkha Dutt released an detailed statement, addressing questions raised by the tapes, which she claims were edited.
On 27 November 2010, Vir Sanghvi released a detailed statement, clarifying his role.
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 Pioneers 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".
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. The Government is also accused of selectively releasing merely 10 hours of the 2000 hours recorded of the Radia tapes.
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. and that the probe would be completed latest by March 2011. On 24 November 2010, Nira Radia was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate
(ED) officials and recorded her statements in relation to the 2G scam probe.
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n telecom minister A. Raja
A. Raja
Andimuthu Raja is an Indian politician from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam political party. He was a member of the 15th Lok Sabha representing the Nilgiris constituency of Tamil Nadu....
, and with senior journalists, politicians, and corporate houses, 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,http://business-standard.com/india/news/radia-shuts-vaishnavi/454061/ whose clients include the Tata Teleservices and Mukesh Ambani
Mukesh Ambani
Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani is an Indian business magnate. He is the chairman and managing director of Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries, the largest private sector enterprise in India listed in Fortune 500 magazine. His personal stake in Reliance Industries is 48%...
’s Reliance Industries
Reliance Industries
Reliance Industries Limited is an Indian conglomerate company headquartered at Mumbai, India. The company operates through three business segments: petrochemicals, refining, and oil and gas, other segment of the company includes textile, retail business, special economic zone development and...
.
The Radia Tapes
After getting authorization from the Home MinistryMinistry of Home Affairs (India)
Ministry of Home Affairs , known as the Home Ministry or MHA, is an Indian government ministry. It is an interior ministry mainly responsible for the maintenance of Internal security and domestic policy.-Ministerial Team:...
, the Indian Income Tax department tapped Radia's phone lines for 300 days in 2008-2009 as part of their investigations into possible money laundering, restricted financial practices, and tax evasion.
In November 2010, OPEN magazine
OPEN Magazine, India
OPEN is an Indian weekly English language magazine featuring current affairs.Manu Joseph is the editor of the magazine and R. Rajmohan, the publisher....
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. The Central Bureau of Investigation
Central Bureau of Investigation
The Central Bureau of Investigation is a government agency of India that serves as a criminal investigation body, national security agency and intelligence agency. It was established on 1 April 1963 and evolved from the Special Police Establishment founded in 1941...
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
2G
2G is short for second-generation wireless telephone technology. Second generation 2G cellular telecom networks were commercially launched on the GSM standard in Finland by Radiolinja in 1991...
spectrum sale. The tapes appear to demonstrate how Radia attempted to use some media persons to influence the decision to appoint A. Raja as telecom minister.
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:
Politicians
- A. RajaA. RajaAndimuthu Raja is an Indian politician from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam political party. He was a member of the 15th Lok Sabha representing the Nilgiris constituency of Tamil Nadu....
, Telecom minister at that time - KanimozhiKanimozhiKanimozhi Karunanidhi , a politician, poet and journalist. She is a Member of Parliament, representing Tamil Nadu in the Rajya Sabha...
, Rajya Sabha MP... - Achari
Journalists
- Barkha DuttBarkha DuttBarkha Dutt is an Indian TV journalist and columnist. She is currently the Group Editor, English News at New Delhi Television.Dutt gained prominence for her reportage of the Kargil War. She has won many national and international awards, including the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian...
, Group editor, English news, NDTV - M.K. Venu, senior business journalist
- Prabhu ChawlaPrabhu ChawlaPrabhu Chawla is the Editor-in-chief of the Chennai-based The New Indian Express newspaper in India. Before, he was the editor of Language publications in India Today, India's leading weekly newsmagazine India Today Group. Before holding this post he worked as the Editorial Director of the...
, editor of India TodayIndia TodayIndia Today is an Indian weekly news magazine published by Living Media India Limited, in publication since 1975 based in Mumbai. India Today is also the name of its sister-publication in Hindi...
magazine - Rajdeep SardesaiRajdeep SardesaiRajdeep Sardesai is an Indian journalist, political commentator and news presenter. Sardesai is the Editor-in-Chief of IBN18 Network, that includes CNN-IBN, IBN-7 and IBN-Lokmat.- Biography :...
- Shankar Aiyar, then with India Today Group
- Vir SanghviVir SanghviVir Sanghvi is an Indian print and television journalist, columnist, and talk show host. Currently, he is an Advisor, at HT Media....
, HT advisory editorial director
Others
- Ranjan Bhattacharya (foster son-in-law of former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee)
- Suhel Seth, management guru and columnist
Political lobbying
According to the transcripts of the tapes, Radia lobbied against the reappointment of Dayanidhi MaranDayanidhi Maran
Dayanidhi Maran is a member of parliament in India’s 15th Lok Sabha from Chennai Central constituency and Additional Deputy Leader of DMK. He was also the Minister for Textiles in the Union Cabinet, and has also served as the as the Minister for Communications and Information Technology before that...
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'.
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).
- Radia, in a later conversation with Ranjan Bhattacharya, who also appears to be acting as a conduit to the Congress, 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).'
Alleged media blackout and reactions in social media
The news gained prominence following sustained pressure on social networking sites TwitterTwitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
and Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
against an attempted blackout orchestrated by many prominent Indian TV channels and newspapers. #barkhagate has been trending as number one topic on Twitter in India for more than a week, since the breakout of the news. According to the Washington Post, "Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
has played an important role in launching what has become an international conversation on the issue, with the Indian diaspora weighing in".
Initially, only a handful of the mainstream newspapers in India, like The Deccan Herald
Deccan Herald
The Deccan Herald is a leading English-language daily newspaper distributed in the Indian state of Karnataka. It is published by the Printers Private Limited and has a number of editions in Bangalore, Hubli, Mysore, Mangalore and Gulbarga....
, Indian Express had openly written about the tapes. Some newspapers like HT Media, Mint (the business newspaper also owned by HT media) and NDTV
NDTV
NDTV is an Indian commercial broadcasting television network founded in 1988. It was founded by Prannoy Roy, an eminent journalist and current chairman and director of NDTV Group. NDTV currently has more than 1,000 employees producing news from over twenty locations in India...
said "the authenticity of these transcripts cannot be ascertained". 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. The Radia tapes is seen to have also made a dent in the image of the media in the country. "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. . After it became an international news, more and more media houses covered the story. The Deccan Chronicle
The Deccan Chronicle
Deccan Chronicle is an Indian English-language daily newspaper. It is published in Hyderabad, India by Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited. The newspaper's name derives from the originating place, the Deccan regions of India. Supplements are "TV Guide", "Sunday Chronicle", "Chennai Chronicle", and...
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." The largest circulated english newspaper in the India and the world, The Times of India
The Times of India
The Times of India is an Indian English-language daily newspaper. TOI has the largest circulation among all English-language newspaper in the world, across all formats . It is owned and managed by Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd...
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..."
Protests and developments
Barkha Dutt, Vir Sanghvi, and others have refuted the allegations. Open Magazine maintained that the conversations were carried as they appeared in the recordings. 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.New Delhi Television Limited
NDTV
NDTV is an Indian commercial broadcasting television network founded in 1988. It was founded by Prannoy Roy, an eminent journalist and current chairman and director of NDTV Group. NDTV currently has more than 1,000 employees producing news from over twenty locations in India...
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.
Hindustan Times
Hindustan Times
Hindustan Times is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded in 1924 with roots in the Indian independence movement of the period ....
cited Sanghvi's clarifications on his website, and stated that the authenticity of these transcripts cannot be ascertained.
On 26 November 2010, Barkha Dutt released an detailed statement, addressing questions raised by the tapes, which she claims were edited.
On 27 November 2010, Vir Sanghvi released a detailed statement, clarifying his role.
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 Pioneers 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".
The original tapes are now annexures in a Supreme Court
Supreme Court of India
The Supreme Court of India is the highest judicial forum and final court of appeal as established by Part V, Chapter IV of the Constitution of India...
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. The Government is also accused of selectively releasing merely 10 hours of the 2000 hours recorded of the Radia tapes.
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. and that the probe would be completed latest by March 2011. On 24 November 2010, Nira Radia was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate
Directorate General of Economic Enforcement
The Directorate General of Economic Enforcement is a law enforcement agency and economic intelligence agency responsible for enforcing economic laws and fighting economic crime in India. It is part of the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance. It comprises officers of the Indian Revenue Service...
(ED) officials and recorded her statements in relation to the 2G scam probe.