More than 650 Radia tapes in circulation

OUR CORRESPONDENT New Delhi | 12th Dec

Vir Sanghvi finds himself caught in the Radia storm once again here are another 650-plus taped conversations between Niira Radia and her friends and associates in the public domain, in addition to the 160-odd that have been widely reported by media. Both Barkha Dutt and Vir Sanghvi, media personalities who figured strongly in the first round of revelations, have resurfaced in this batch. Sanghvi tells Radia, on 20 June 2009 that he has "dressed" up his column for the Hindustan Times on the gas war between the brothers Mukesh and Anil Ambani as a "piece about how public will not stand for resources being cornered" and a plea to Manmohan Singh, so "it won't look like an inter-Ambani battle except to people in the know". A grateful Niira Radia tells him, "Very nice, lovely, thank you, Vir." NDTV anchor Barkha Dutt's name surfaces as conduit who helped Niira Radia obtain a statement from the Congress that was helpful to A. Raja's cause as he sought desperately to retain the telecom portfolio through which he had helped Radia's client, Ratan Tata, make a massive profit through his telecom company. In this tape, Niira Radia, the public relations consultant of Ratan Tata, tells the person she is conversing with that Barkha had succeeded in persuading the Congress party to issue a statement that was to their benefit. This helpful-to-Radia statement was wad to the press by Manish Tiwari, the Congress spokesman. Barkha Dutt is referred to only as Barkha in the conversation while Manish Tiwari is identified fully. This conversation was recorded on 22 May 2009. In the first round of revelations Ms Dutt was taped promising to help the sacked minister A. Raja retain his lucrative portfolio. She repeatedly protested her innocence, dismissing those conversations with corporate middlewoman Niira Radia as a mere lapse of judgement rather than unethical practice. Respected media personalities like N. Ram, editor of the Hindu, have dismissed her defence as "pathetic". Radia also says that she had a long conversation with Raja and Kani [Kanimozhi, Karunanidhi's daughter] the previous night, in which details of allotment of ministries in the Union Cabinet were discussed. In another conversation, also recorded on 22 May, Niira Radia pleads with Tarun Das, after some encouraging remarks about how well his son is going to do according to the stars, to speak to the Congress bigwigs on her behalf. She claims that "they" are listening to the "wrong people", meaning Dayanidhi Maran. Her view of Karunanidhi is contemptuous: "[He] doesn't even know what is going on." And she believed that the Congress hated [Dayanidhi] Maran. She describes the ageing Chief Minister's plight succinctly: "And he has got one daughter telling him she will commit suicide and one wife saying I will do this..." Niira Radia tells Tarun Das that the Prime Minister had no objection to Raja, and that he only objected to DMK leader Baalu's induction. She believed that Sunil Mittal, owner of Airtel, was lobbying against Raja, and Tarun Das promised to talk to Mittal on Raja's behalf. Radia assures Das that Raja will not go against Mittal's interests. Both Radia and Das were surprised that former law minister H.R. Bhardwaj had been left from the Cabinet. http://www.sunday-guardian.com/a/1246