The infamous case of the leaked Radia tapes that kicked a storm of controversies in the political, bureaucratic and business circles back then in 2010 had shocked everybody as private conversations between politicians, business men, journalists and power brokers were tapped for a record period of 300days and later these telephonic intercepts were leaked to the public, and more shocking was the fact that it was done at the behest of the Income Tax department to investigate any mischief of money laundering by infringing upon personal privacy of important persons.
This had led the common man to believe that these revelations were indeed the handiwork of some whistle blower seeking to bring out the ugly truth to the public forefront but what is more important in politics than truth itself is the timings of the truth or that which is made out as truth! And the harsh truth is also that there are no truly motiveless friends in politics or in profit making and that there is nothing called a sudden development, as everything else is a carefully calibrated move!
So who was Niira Radia? Was she single handedly so spectacularly clever to override the spectrum allocations and influence the choice of ministers in the cabinet? Or was she just a western pawn or the pawn broker of power politics?
The Kenyan born Nira Radia, after several unsuccessful business stints at London and a broken personal life, had fled to India from London, she moved around in the business and power corridors of India until she met Ratan Tata who was instrumental in setting up of her Vaishnavi PR firm, her knack to pally up with the powerful with an excellent command over corporate matters and an eloquent communication skill she carried her crafty yet alluring personality as someone proficient on government policies, foreign investments and business set ups. In just 9 years she had set up an empire of 300 crores making her connections with top politicians, corporates, bureaucrats, media, police and journalists.
So what really got her into the mess? Why would the Income Tax department spy on a lobbyist year round and at whose command? Certainly it has to be from the top political commands as trust is an expensive commodity in the political corridors! And those were the times of a coalition Government where the DMK’s family politics was throwing its weight around the UPA government that was desperate to get someone who was not so articulate or ambitious and someone who could be tackled as a telecom minister or perhaps be used as a pawn to cover up or take the blame for all misappropriations.
During the investigation, the then CBI chief Ranjit Sinha was disgraced for his conducive role of connivance in not probing and taking such serious allegations to its conclusive end as it was found from his visitor lists that he had been repeatedly meeting the lobbyists and representatives of all the accused and was perhaps party to the whole episode.
The case involved many top business houses like Tata sons, Reliance group, Unitech, Tata steel, Jharkand chief minister Madhu Koda, top journalists like Barkha Dutt and many more, income tax officials, aviation ministry officials, lobbyists and many politicians who are today disrupting the parliament.
There were some 34 PE in the Apex courts which were quashed due to lack of evidence and some 14 preliminary enquiries (PE) filed as per the SC ‘s orders to investigate any money laundering, restricted financial practices or tax evasion, but recently after all that mega drama, eight out of nine remaining preliminary enquiries have been closed by the CBI due to lack of evidence of any criminality or any proof suggesting that any corporate favors were given using Government links, from the telephonic intercepts of corporate lobbyist Niira Radia.
It is interesting to note that neither the then CBI director nor the top journalist who are disgraced until today were probed seriously although it was quiet evident that they had compromised their professional ethics and cognizant of the conspiracy. Nor were the corporate houses or business tycoons pulled up for interfering and influencing Government decisions.
The biggest irony in the current political scenario has been that although Reliance group’s name figured prominently in the 2G spectrum scam, and PILs challenging the Pan India license grant to Jio were filed against them, they were all revoked! Yet the popular chest beating narrative of the opposition remains that the Modi Government is favorable to the Ambanis. It is another thing to be introspected if successive Indian governments are favorable to the old players like Tatas and Ambanis or in reality fearful of the House of Rothschild!
Spectrum itself is a natural resource and technically the nation’s property is meant to be used for the development of the nation, so it should ideally be done by state owned telecom companies if it really has to benefit the nation as it also involves national security however when a state is not equipped with expertise it will involve private players but it is shocking and shameful that in spite of the best brains with our IITs and IIMs and civil service grads the GOI chose to get the spectrum auction managed by a company called NM Rothschild and sons.
For those of you like most Indians who do not know who Rothschild is, they are the family who ran the East India Company and created subservient Dominions across the world and continue to dominate the world economics and politics today. If one were to look up the names and background of the various companies involved in the 2G scam, it all points to links to one name that makes us wonder if we are really free from external interventions!
However some spirits are always high and have never given up even in times of adversity, recently Dr. Subramanian Swamy has filed a case against Ratan Tata and Niira Radia for money laundering in the Unitech case!
As per a news report in the pgurus website states that the SFIO (Serious fraud investigation office) finds that the Tatas funded Unitech and Unitech in turn paid for 2G license fee. Dr. Swamy has alleged that as per the telecom guidelines an existing telecom operator cannot finance another telecom company’s operations and although the CBI is aware that this is a violation under the telecom guidelines, they never probed or acted against the matter in spite of the Tatas conceding to this fact and paying a fine of 40crore.
The CBI may not have found evidences of criminality to qualify as an act of corruption under the constitutional framework or so it chooses but what remains a question mark in the mind of millions is if it is the money vending business tycoons and old oppressors who actually decide the politics and fate of this country where the rule book is thrust in the neck for the commoners and twisted for the coterie of conniving and the connected where the change of guard be it in the CBI, or the government itself is just a constitutional obligation to be operating with minimal powers of decision making under the invisible white master!