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Corruption in India

But no channel is covering this expose. It is shocking how easy some media persons have access to the top leadership of the country.

http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/nation/tell-sunil-mittal-you-have-to-work-with-raja

RADIA: Hello?

RAJA: Raja here.

RADIA: Hi! I got a message from Barkha Dutt just now.

RAJA: Huh?

RADIA: Barkha Dutt

RAJA: What does she say?

RADIA: She says… that she has been following up the story with Prime Minister’s Office tonight. In fact, she was the one who told me that Sonia Gandhi went there. She says that he [the PM, presumably] has no problem with you, but he has a problem with Baalu.

RADIA: No, no, we are handling, don’t worry. We have to take so much off, you know, even Congress had to make that statement, no? I spoke to Sunil Mittal, did Chandoliya tell you?

RAJA: I didn’t know

RADIA: I told him to stop. I told him, it doesn’t help.

RAJA: Hmm. Tell Sunil Mittal, you have to work along with Raja for another five years. So, don’t…

RADIA: I told him that. I told him that. But then you also have to distance yourself from Anil. You must be neutral.

RAJA: Ah, that we can keep.
 
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Trapped in telephone tapping?


Finance Minister, Pranab Mukerjee seems to be buying time when he announced that he would be making a statement on Friday on the revelations of a PR lobbyist, Nira Radia’s telephone being placed under observation as part of a CBI investigation into the “2G telecom scam”. The reason is simple.
The phones were tapped and there is irrefutable evidence that the phones put under observation revealed that the lobbyist Mrs Raida “might have a role with regards to the award of Telecom licenses” and could have influenced the 2G auction in 2008 as she also had some direct conversations with the Telecom Minister (read A Raja).

Six lines were under interception from 120 days from August 20, 2008 and again from May 11, 2009 for a period of 180 days.
An inter-departmental communications between two of the country’s premier organisations reveal that a Public Relation Agency kept under surveillance was talking about laundering and structured payoffs, transactions and liaison for projects of telecom and power. The conversations also indicated cross border transactions related to Telecom, Petroleum and also media, the June 2009 report said.


The next month filing says that the subject’s conversations indicated that the target carries out liaison work for projects of teleccom petroleum, civil aviation and power and has plans to spreading business connections to Africa including investments in Guinea and Senegal.The target has, as per telephone conversations, facilitated for a fee filing of PILs by NGOs to hurt the business interests of the rivals of clients.


Besides phone tapping, there were also whispers from Whispers in Corridors stating that Ms Radia is very close associate of Telecom Minister and helped Swan Telecom, Aircell, Unitech Wireless and Datacom get some things done in the government.What Pranabbabu will be telling the Parliament at the weekend remains to be seen as he will be addressing the more serious accusations of swindling, including IPL.
 
Barkha Vir Tata

Some very highly startling revelations have been made in the media in last few days where allegations of very serious nature have come up. They relate to some of the top political persons, industrial houses and media persons. The persons being named in these reports are extremely influential and powerful ones.

In the center of all this turmoil is a person named Ms Nira Radia. The Noesis Consultancy service of which she is a director says- “Ms. Nira has been an entrepreneur for more than 25 years, with extensive consultancy experience in the Aviation, Travel, Tourism and the Communication industry.” She is apparently in the Public Relations business with her Vaishnavi Enterprises. What have created the storm are some documents and taped conversations. The documents include the so-called letters written by Sri Vineet Agrawal, a B Tech from IIT Delhi and an IPS officer of Maharashtra Cadre, 1994 batch to Sri Milap Jain, a very senior IRS officer and currently the Director General of Investigation in New Delhi. Sri Agrawal presumably wrote this letter while he was DIG of Anti-corruption Branch in CBI at New Delhi. From the contents of a letter circulating widely on Internet, it seems that the case No RC DAI 2009 A /0045 relates to section 13(2) r/w 13(1)(d) of Prevention of Corruption Act in which allegations as regards criminal conspiracy between certain public authorities and private persons in the grant of UAS licences related with the Ministry of Telecommunications in the year 2007-08 are being investigated. As per this letter dated 16/09/2009, Sri Agarwal mentions that one Ms Nira Radia of Noesis Consultancy was actively involved in this criminal conspiracy.
 
2G scam: Raja had free run with PM consent?


NEW DELHI: As skeletons keep tumbling out of A Raja's cupboard, it has emerged that he could have had a free run due to an agreement worked out between DMK and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

A private news channel on Thursday reported that another DMK leader Dayanidhi Maran, who was Raja's predecessor as communications and IT minister, wrote to the PM that the issue of spectrum pricing be kept outside the empowered group of ministers (EGoM) mandate. Within months of setting up of the ministerial panel under Pranab Mukherjee, Maran is learnt to have written to the PM seeking a deletion of the clause that was included in the terms of reference of the EGoM.

"You had kindly assured me that the terms of reference (ToR) of the GoM would be drawn up exactly the way we wanted it which was to focus only on the issue of vacation of spectrum. The GoM has much wider terms of reference, which impinge upon the work of the ministry itself," Maran wrote in a letter on February 28, 2006. The channel reported that Maran asked the PM to get the terms of reference "modified on the lines suggested by us".


A few months later, B K Chaturvedi, who was then the cabinet secretary, issued the revised terms of reference something that did not go down too well with the finance ministry, which is responsible for collection of revenue by way of taxes and other levies and fees.

In fact, as late as April 2007, North Block is said have sought a review of the terms of reference but did not get a response to its demand.

Reacting to the expose, BJP leader Arun Jaitley said, "This pinpoints the culpability of the peime minister in the scam. SO far, he had appeared guilty of only inaction. Now, it emerges that the decision to keep the pricing issue outside the ambit of the EGoM was a conscious decision and it makes PM's role more critical."

Pricing of spectrum, which are airwaves that carry signals, is at the centre of the 2G scam. By bundling spectrum with licences in 2008 -- at prices discovered in 2001, the telecom department is estimated to have caused a loss of up to Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the exchequer, the Comptroller and Auditor General said in a report released earlier this week.

The report observed that during Raja's term in Sanchar Bhawan, the telecom department ignored advice from the Prime Minister's Office, the finance and law ministries, the telecom regulator and also its own officials and handed out licences and spectrum at low rates.

In its first innings, the UPA government was seen to be critically dependent on the DMK for survival in office. In fact, the government was forced into taking several decisions at the regional party's behest, including cancelling disinvestment of some public sector companies.


Meanwhile, PM also seems to be under fire from SC.

SC to PM: Explain silence on Raja

.......
A bench comprising Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly gave the government two days – that is, till Saturday – to file an affidavit listing the reasons for the delay by the prime minister.

The SC's directive is unprecedented. This is the first time that the court has insisted on an explanation from a PM through an affidavit. Usually, it would settle for a perusal of files. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Tuesday.
........



The solicitor general, G Subramaniam, tried to spin and save PM but could not do so.

Did SG put wrong facts before SC?


NEW DELHI: After perusing the relevant files in the Prime Minister's Office, solicitor general Gopal Subramaniam on Thursday emphatically told the Supreme Court that every letter of Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy had been dealt with adequately and responded to.

Swamy had on November 29, 2008, sent a petition to PM Manmohan Singh seeking sanction to prosecute then telecom minister A Raja on the basis of available evidence linking the latter to the 2G spectrum allocation scam. But he got a response from the Department of Personnel and Training on March 19, 2010. Swamy had claimed that he had sent five reminders to the PM on this issue.

The SG began the day's argument saying, "I am so glad I said (on Tuesday) that I will consult and come back. I have gone through the entire records and I can say with confidence that every letter of Swamy has been dealt with. Swamy has got all the replies. He has been answered adequately."

With one of the senior-most law officers speaking authoritatively, a Bench comprising Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly wanted to know from Swamy whether he had received responses to all his communications.

Swamy said he had received only one on March 19, 2010 and another from Raja. TOI checked with government officials who had dealt with the files and they said Swamy was right. There was no response sent to Swamy on the issue of sanction except the letter dated March 19. All other letters were mere acknowledgements of his letters to the PM, they said.

So, did the SG put a wrong fact before the court? And was this the reason why the Bench insisted on an affidavit rather than adjudicating the legal issue raised by Swamy by hearing oral arguments? And will the SG be able to make the government file an affidavit on behalf of the PM stating that all letters from Swamy had been adequately responded to?
........


...

Under fire from PM, but Moily says all?s well - Hindustan Times​


.....
The Prime Minister’s Office is learnt to have conveyed its displeasure to the ministry on the way the issue was handled. The ministry is now likely to ask the top law officer of the country, Attorney General GE Vahanvati to be also a part of the team, presently comprising his colleagues — Solicitor General (SG) Gopal Subramanium and additional Solicitor General Harin Rawal.

Asked about the unhappiness within the government from his ministry on the issue, an angry law minister M Veerappa Moily slammed the media for having created a hype. “There is no goof-up from our side, it is from your side,” he said
.....
 
www.outlookindia.com | The Power Tapes

While the Spectrum scam tapes have been talked about, what has not received adequate notice so far is the lobbying and controversy surrounding the division of gas between the Ambani brothers. The conversations in this set include journalists Vir Sanghvi of the Hindustan Times; Prabhu Chawla of the India Today group; and G. Ganapathy Subramaniam and M.K. Venu of the Economic Times.

While we are yet to absorb and understand the various intricacies and ramifications of the very many conversations on record, it is eerie how casually a discussion, for example, about the battle for power sector involving Tatas and Reliance in Maharashtra segues into instigating the likes of Shiv Sena and other groups like the MNS and how easily corporates play and manoeuvre the "protests" by goon-gangs of political outfits to further their ends.

Also, how easy it seems for these power-brokers to casually fix politicians -- e.g. Venkaiah Naidu of the BJP here is mentioned as amenable to persuasion, as against Arun Shourie, for example.
 
The Power Tapes

The other big 'national resource' story involves the virtual who's who: Ambani V/s Ambani V/s Tata, gas and power sector war involving big name journos, politicians, babus, corporates

While the Spectrum scam tapes have been talked about, what has not received adequate notice so far is the lobbying and controversy surrounding the division of gas between the Ambani brothers. The conversations in this set seemingly include journalists Vir Sanghvi of the Hindustan Times; Prabhu Chawla of the India Today group; and G. Ganapathy Subramaniam and M.K. Venu of the Economic Times...

While we are yet to fully absorb and understand the various intricacies and ramifications of the very many conversations on record, it is eerie how casually a discussion, for example, about the battle for power sector involving Tatas and Reliance in Maharashtra segues into instigating the likes of Shiv Sena and other groups like the MNS and how easily corporates play and manoeuvre the "protests" by goon-gangs of political outfits to further their ends.

Also, how easy it seems for these power-brokers to casually fix not just politicians -- e.g. Venkaiah Naidu of the BJP here is mentioned as amenable to persuasion, as against Arun Shourie, for example -- but also, in their narration, the higher judiciary.

Some of the abbreviations:

MM is Manoj Modi
Ganu is G. Ganapathy Subramaniam of the ET
Vinu is M.K. Venu, then of the ET


Teaser of the recordings
Audio
Audio
Audio
Audio
Audio
Audio
Audio
Audio
Audio
Audio ([Discussing a BJP revolt and LK Advani coterie with Navika Kumar of Times Now, telling her not to pass on info to Arun Jaitley])
Audio
Audio
Audio
Audio
Audio
Audio
Audio
Audio


dozens more tapes at links below

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

The other big 'national resource' story involves the virtual who's who: Ambani V/s Ambani V/s Tata, gas and power sector war involving big name journos, politicians, babus, corporates

While the Spectrum scam tapes have been talked about, what has not received adequate notice so far is the lobbying and controversy surrounding the division of gas between the Ambani brothers. The conversations in this set seemingly include journalists Vir Sanghvi of the Hindustan Times; Prabhu Chawla of the India Today group; and G. Ganapathy Subramaniam and M.K. Venu of the Economic Times...

While we are yet to fully absorb and understand the various intricacies and ramifications of the very many conversations on record, it is eerie how casually a discussion, for example, about the battle for power sector involving Tatas and Reliance in Maharashtra segues into instigating the likes of Shiv Sena and other groups like the MNS and how easily corporates play and manoeuvre the "protests" by goon-gangs of political outfits to further their ends.

Also, how easy it seems for these power-brokers to casually fix not just politicians -- e.g. Venkaiah Naidu of the BJP here is mentioned as amenable to persuasion, as against Arun Shourie, for example -- but also, in their narration, the higher judiciary.

Some of the abbreviations:

MM is Manoj Modi
Ganu is G. Ganapathy Subramaniam of the ET
Vinu is M.K. Venu, then of the ET


Teaser of the recordings
Audio
Audio
Audio
Audio
Audio
Audio
Audio
Audio
Audio
Audio ([Discussing a BJP revolt and LK Advani coterie with Navika Kumar of Times Now, telling her not to pass on info to Arun Jaitley])
Audio
Audio
Audio
Audio
Audio
Audio
Audio
Audio


dozens more tapes at links below

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

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