During a rally in Tamil Nadu today, PM Modi targeted the DMK and Congress. PM Modi stated, “India remembers 2009 and how the DMK and Congress allotted portfolios after the elections. Ministers were being picked not by the Prime Minister but by those who had nothing to do with public service. There was telephone bargaining for minister posts.”
India remembers 2009 and how the DMK and Congress allotted portfolios after the elections.
Ministers were being picked not by the Prime Minister but by those who had nothing to do with public service.
There was telephone bargaining for minister posts: PM
— PMO India (@PMOIndia) March 1, 2019
PM Modi’s remarks were in reference to the infamous Radia-Gate and a direct attack on one of the ‘fixers’ involved in the controversy, Barkha Dutt. Barkha Dutt had lobbied for A Raja as the telecom minister during the infamous 2G scam by mentioning that she would talk to Ghulam Nabi Azad, the Radia tapes had revealed.
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 300 days and later these telephonic intercepts were leaked to the public.
Radia tapes highlighted the role of a compromised media barons making deals to get ministers on certain portfolios with big business too in the picture. Radia tapes were multilateral with tentacles invading every given sector in the form of corporate, politics and media. The case involved many top business houses like Tata sons, Reliance group, Unitech, Tata steel, Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda, top journalists like Barkha Dutt and many more, income tax officials, aviation ministry officials, lobbyists, and many politicians.
The Radia-tapes not only revealed the morally repugnant nature of the ‘moral crusaders’ of the media but more importantly highlighted the fact inefficacy of the Manmohan government and the various partners of UPA who were more interested in serving their own interests rather than working towards a stable and efficient government.
By highlighting the role of likes of Barkha Dutt, the unelected, unaccountable forces behind the UPA government, PM Modi has shown the dangers of the opportunistic coalitions and ‘compromises’ Congress party is willing to make just for the sake of power.