Niira Radia | Tapes controversy | Full story
Who is Niira Radia ?
- Born in Kenya and educated in London, Niira Radia is a well established corporate lobbyist who also runs public relations firm named Vaishnavi Communications ( estd in 2001 ).
- Corporate lobbyist means a person used to arrange favours from others among big industrialists,politicians and even media .
- Big names like Ratan Tata (Tata Group), Ambanis (Reliance Industries) are her clients.
Which tapes are leaked ? Who recorded these tapes and why ?
- Actually, in year 2007 ,Finance ministry got complaints that Niira radia has made around 300 crore in just a short span of 9yrs.Not only this, she was suspected to be an agent of foreign intelligence agencies.
- So, Directorate-General of Income Tax (Investigation) ordered to record Niira radia’s conversations following a complaint received by the Finance Minister on November 16, 2007.More than 5800 conversations are now with Supreme courts custody.
Who all involved in these tapes ? (source wikipedia)
Politicians
- A. Raja, former Telecommunication and IT Minister
- Kanimozhi, Rajya Sabha MP
- N.K. Singh, Rajya Sabha MP
Journalists
- Barkha Dutt, Group editor, English news, NDTV
- M.K. Venu, senior business journalist
- Prabhu Chawla,editor of India Today magazine
- Rajdeep Sardesai
- Shankar Aiyar, then with India Today Group
- Vir Sanghvi, HT advisory editorial director
Industry Heads
- Ratan Tata, Tata Group
- Tarun Das, former CII head
- (Mention of) Mukesh Ambani,Anil Ambani, Reliance Industries
- (Mention of) Sunil Mittal, Bharti Airtel
- Manoj Modi, Reliance Industries
Others
- Ranjan Bhattacharya (foster son-in-law of former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee)
- Suhel Seth, Page 3 Regular and columnist
Now lets get into how they are involved.
A.RAJA :
- According to some media houses that published the transcripts of the leaked tapes, Radia had purportedly lobbied for Raja to retain his communications portfolio after the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) was voted back to power in May 2009.
- Income tax department recorded her conversations with Raja and corporate biggies, over 10 months in 2008 and 2009. She is doubted to be involved in 2G spectrum scam in a big way.
- Point to note here is that 2G spectrum licenses were already issued in 2008.Its only public who came to know later.Even After all this,Niira Radia suggested to retain his portfolio.
Barkha dutt :
- Burkha dutt and her employer (NDTV INDIA) are being interpreted by many as the duo functioning as mediators between and the Congress and the DMK in the negotiations for allotment of union cabinet portfolios for the DMK during UPA-II formation in 2009 , have certainly been caught in the eye of a storm.
- The DMK had been instrumental in bringing the UPA government back to power again in the 2009 general elections. But what followed was a prolonged stalemate during which the DMK allegedly threatened to withdraw its support unless it was given the 3 Cabinet and 4 Minister Of State berths it had been pressing for for a long time. So, A.Raja was proposed to be the telecom minister.
- In the conversation between Vir Sanghvi, editorial director of Hindustan Times, and Nira Radia, Radia appears to almost dictate to the journalist what he should write on Anil Ambani and the gas controversy.
Ratan Tata
- His recorded tapes are at given links ,in case you wish to :
- Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata has filed a petition in the Supreme Court . Tata's petition says that his right to privacy has been affected and that the broadcast and publication of the transcript must be stopped. He has requested the court to direct the government to stop leakage of his recorded conversation further.
- Tata has invoked Article 32 of the Constitution, claiming that his Right to Life, which includes right to privacy, has been breached by the leakage of these tapes.
- Tata in his petition submitted that the conversations were recorded by the government and "we have no quarrel with the government". He further contended that the government owned the responsibility to maintain secrecy of a citizen, therefore privacy must be maintained.
