In her reply Burkha Dutt nowhere denies her part.
She is angry as to why others have not been exposed!
- Barkha–18-188819-0-10-20090522-094851
- Barkha–33-188819-0-21-20090522-095845
- Barkha Dutt-02-188819-0-01-20090522-104733
- Barkha–11-188819-0-07-20090522-153129
- Barkha–09-188819-0-04-20090522-180916
- Barkha-14-188819-0-08-20090522-192357
To download the file, right click on: Barkha–18-188819-0-10-20090522-094851.mp3 and choose Save
http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?268327
Barkha Dutt: Hi Niira
Barkha Dutt: No, no, no. I’ve been up, yaa, most of the night. The stalemate continues, yaa.
Niira Radia: Yeah. Listen, the thing is that they need to talk to him directly. That is what the problem is.
Barkha Dutt: Apparently now, the message from the other side is, that why did he go? Why did Baalu [T.R. Baalu, former DMK minister] go public? They claim that at this point will they had offered him this formula and this guys said, “no”. This guys never told them they were going to withdraw support. Not withdraw support. But outside support. Apparently, PM was really pissed off ‘ cause they had went public.
Niira Radia: But that’s Baalu’s doing, naa… he was not instructed by Karunanidhi to do that.
Barkha Dutt: Oh, he wasn’t?
Niira Radia: This is not. He was told to come away and tell Congress that.
Barkha Dutt: And he went public
Niira Radia: Well, the media… media, the media was standing outside.
Barkha Dutt: Oh God. So now what? What should I tell them? Tell me what should I tell them?
Niira Radia: I’ll tell you what it is—the problem and I have had a long chat with both his wife and with the daughter, right?
Barkha Dutt: Haan, haan.
Niira Radia: The problem is if the Congress has a problem with Baalu, if they have no problem with anyone. They need and go talk to Karunanidhi. They have very good relationship with Karunanidhi directly.
Barkha Dutt: Correct, haan.
Niira Radia: Because you see, in front of Baalu, in front of Maran, they can’t talk.
Barkha Dutt: Yeah
Niira Radia: So they have to tell him directly, there [are] enough Congress leaders in Tamil Nadu. They need to go in and tell him exactly—the biggest problem is that the following of Azhagiri is saying that you cannot give Maran a cabinet post and keep Azhagiri in the MoS state.
Barkha Dutt: That’s right. But will Karuna drop Baalu?
Niira Radia: He… look, if you tell him that Baalu is the only problem. I would imagine, he will drop him.
Barkha Dutt: But you see the problem right now is also over the choice of portfolios, naa…
Niira Radia: No. They’ve not said anything. The portfolios have not even got discussed.
Barkha Dutt: Congress claims, for whatever it’s worth, that the DMK wanted surface transport, power, IT, telecom, railways and health.
Niira Radia: Wo tho pehle se list gaya tha
Barkha Dutt: Haa, abhi Congress has offered IT, telecom, chemical, fertilizer and labour
Niira Radia: Yes
Barkha Dutt: So this is where it’ll stand off. Will DMK accept all (or both)?
Niira Radia: Maybe no, because they have to drop Maran if you want them to be accept… Maran is wishing coal and mine.
Barkha Dutt: Who’s wishing?
Niira Radia: Now Maran is saying, you give me coal and more mine. If he.. my honest advice to… is that you need to tell them… tell him directly that we are happy because Kani (M.K.Kanimozhi, Karundanidhi’s daughter) got no issue about being even as independent but Azhagiri is now telling her that you cannot take an independent charge if Maran remains cabinet minister. And congress is sending messages through media and through various sources saying that… Maran is going around telling everyone that he is the only acceptable person.
Barkha Dutt: Ya, ya, ya. That I know.
Niira Radia: But that’s not correct na?
Barkha Dutt: No, I know and we’ve (NDTV) have taken that off… We’ve have taken that off.
Niira Radia: But also… Congress needs to tell Karunanidhi that we have not said anything about Maran
Barkha Dutt: OK. let me talk to them again
Niira Radia: Yeah? The choice of candidate we will leave to you. We have some reservation about Baalu. And let them tell the reservation. And we have not said anything about Maran. We are not asking…
Burkha Dutt’s Reply:
Society, the monthly lifestyle magazine of the Magna group owned by Nari Hira, has a cover story on Vir Sanghvi andBarkha Dutt in its January 2011 issue.
For the first time, the two journalists most affected by theNiira Radia tapes, appear on the same platform.
In her one-page interview, Dutt states:
“I can’t comment on why the leakage has been so selective. But clearly, the conversations have been cherry picked and, in the interests of transparency, I think all 5,000-plus conversations should now be made public.”
“My viewers don’t need to be disheartened. The way the story has been presented is so caricatured and distorted that it is made to look in a certain way. I am still the same journalist that I always was. I strongly object to the way these stories have been written.”
http://wearethebest.wordpress.com/2011/01/27/vir-sanghvi-barkha-dutt-we-were-targete
http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?268327
Burkhs Dutt’s Reply.
As a journalist, whose work has been consistently hard-hitting and scathingly critical of the ongoing 2G scam and the former Telecom Minister, I am astonished, angered and hurt to see the baseless allegations against me in sections of the media this week.
While there is no doubt that journalists must be held to the same exacting standards of accountability that we seek from others, the allegations in this instance, as they relate to me, are entirely slanderous and not backed by a shred of evidence. The edited conversations between PR Representative Nira Radia and me have been headlined to suggest that I misused my role as a journalist to “lobby” for A. Raja, a man I have never met.
While this is completely untrue, I can understand the anger and anguish that such a misrepresentation can create, among viewers who rely on me to report honestly and impartially. And I would like to address some of the questions raised by these edited transcripts.
The tapes seem to add up to hundreds of hours of conversations between Nira Radia and people from different backgrounds, including scores of well-known journalists and editors from all the major media organisations (TV and Print) in India. Despite this, much of the commentary has been strangely selective in its focus. And quite often, vindictively personal. Consider, for example, that online it is being dubbed “BarkhaGate.”
I cannot speak on behalf of any other journalist on the tapes. Framed in the backdrop of a larger media debate, every journalist’s conversation on these tapes must, of course, be evaluated on its own merit. So, speaking only for myself, the insinuation made by the magazines are preposterous.
By definition, the insinuation of “lobbying” implies either a quid-pro-quo of some kind or a compromise in how I have reported the story. As anyone who has watched my coverage of the ongoing 2G scam over the past year would know – to suggest either is entirely absurd. (ATTACHED BELOW ARE LINKS TO SEVERAL SHOWS HOSTED BY ME ON THE 2G SCAM OVER THE LAST TWO YEARS). In several different statements, I have already challenged two newsmagazines who first carried the allegations to establish any proof of a quid-pro quo or a bias in reportage. I know that neither charge stands the test of any scrutiny.
For those perplexed by the ongoing debate, it could be useful to understand the context in which these conversations took place. The few, short conversations took place in the backdrop of cabinet formation in 2009, when the DMK had stormed out of the UPA coalition over portfolio allocation.
In this instance, Nira Radia, was clearly plugged into the inner workings of the DMK, a fact we only discovered when she rang up to tell me that the news flashes running on different news channels were incorrect; the stalemate between the DMK and the Congress had not yet been resolved. She corroborated her claim by saying she was in direct contact with the DMK chief and was in fact with his daughter, Kanimozhi. We talked about news developments within the DMK and the Congress and nothing I said was different from what I was reporting on TV minute-by-minute.
Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/page/?type=barkha-statement&cp
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