Ramanisblog

Tag: Dayanidhi Maran

  • Maran in 2 G scam?

    Seems to have been a systematic operation by DMK  to swindle.

    Look at their insistence on getting Telecom Ministry earlier.

    For more read my Blogs filed under Corruption/India,Radia Tapes.

    A CBI source told TEHELKA that there is a watertight case against Raja and DB Group MD Shahid Balwa. “We have tracked 2G spectrum money worth Rs. 200 crore, which was transferred from DB Group to DMK’s Kalaignar TV,” said a source. “We are only waiting for a reply to our letter rogatory (LR) sent to Mauritius about a month ago.” This query is about Mauritius- based Delphi Investments, which has stakes in Swan Telecom. The reply will only throw up names of some more beneficiaries in the scam. The puzzle about Unitech’s role is also more or less solved. The CBI will next investigate the allocation of spectrum during Maran’s stint….

    Maran’s tenure was marked by massive growth of Internet subscribers. Also, the share of foreign direct investment in telecom services was raised from 49 percent to 74 percent. In fact, Maran was also credited with massive cuts in mobile and landline call rates. But initial probes indicate that 2G spectrum money worth Rs. 1,000 crore was traded during Maran’s tenure.

    In three years, Maran allocated over 70 GSM spectrum. C Sivasankaran, known for his unorthodox business style, had launched the Aircel brand in Tamil Nadu just four months before Maran took over. He was once a close confidant of Maran’s father Murasoli Maran in the 1990s. But he fell out with Maran when the Tatas aligned with Aircel. It was therefore not surprising that Maran targeted the Tatas and Aircel immediately after he took over as telecom minister. Tata Sky was in direct competition with Sun Network owned by Maran’s brother Kalanidhi.

    Sivansankaran did an excellent job of promoting Aircel in Tamil Nadu. Within a year, he bought his rival RPG Cellular in the state and brought over 2.2 million subscribers into his net. Though Sivasankaran is known for launching new projects, building them up and then selling out, the CBI is intrigued by his sudden exit from Aircel. Almost a year after Maran took over, Sivasankaran sold his stakes to Malaysian company Maxis Communications and Apollo Group of Hospitals owner Dr Pratap C Reddy for Rs. 4,700 crore. Reddy came close to the Maran family in 2000, when Murasoli was cured of a rare type of cardiac condition by Apollo Hospital, Chennai. After Reddy became part-owner of Aircel, the ministry under Maran appeared to become extra generous to Aircel

    Smooth operator C Sivasankaran fell out with the Marans after linking up with the Tatas 

    PHOTO: INDIA TODAY GROUP/GETTY IMAGES

    In 2004, when Tata joined hands with Dishnet Wireless (now Aircel) , Dishnet sought licences under the Unified Access Service regime. The telecom secretary had endorsed the application, but Maran’s office put up a note demanding details that were ‘vague’ and ‘irrelevant’, says the Justice Shivraj Patil Committee report. Its mandate was to look into procedural lapses during 2001-09 in the telecom ministry.

    After Aircel’s owners changed, the report reveals Maran cleared allocation of spectrum for Dishnet in Kolkata within a day. Dishnet has a cellular service in West Bengal, but it didn’t have spectrum. On 4 April 2007, a proposal was put up for allocation. Telecom Secretary DS Mathur cleared the proposal within a day, with a note that the matter had been discussed with Maran. Maxis, which holds 74 percent stake in Aircel, also has a sizeable investment in Sun Network thorough its sister concern Astro. Dr Reddy and his family reportedly control 26 percent in Aircel.

    The Sun TV-Tata Sky spat over channel sharing was well known and Maran had a considerable say in Tata’s cellular and communication plans. Sun TV refused to comply with the Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal’s directive to provide its channels to Tata Sky on an a la carte basis. Sun TV later stalled the process by obtaining a HC stay and thus gained time before the launch of its own DTH venture.

    JUSTICE PATIL’S report has also faulted Maran’s functioning. Recounting procedural lapses, the report says that Maran did not consult the Telecom Commission, the telecom department’s decision-making body, and ignored the Group of Ministers (GOM) while taking crucial policy decisions.

    “Actions during Maran’s tenure fell foul of the procedures laid down in the Government of India (Transactions of Business) Rules, which stipulate that when a policy has any financial bearing, no orders shall be issued without the concurrence of the finance ministry. The minister deviated from ‘extant policy’ by not discussing the issue of determining the entry fee for telecom licence with the finance ministry,’’ the report reads.

    Maran also had his say on the crucial issue of spectrum pricing, which has been a controversial aspect of the 2G scam. He overruled a GOM constituted by the PM and got spectrum pricing removed from its terms of reference, despite strong reservations expressed by the finance ministry.

    http://www.tehelka.com/story_main49.asp?filename=Ne050311IMARAN.asp

     

  • Courts/Govt. can not Decide Policy- Radia Tapes -Audio.

    Wordmark of Tata Steel
    Image via Wikipedia

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWr_7CPf3pI

    Click the link above for Audio.

    Shocking .

    Listen.

    ‘Supreme court ,Central Government,State Government can not decide on industrial Policy.

    Only Corporates can do that.

    Talks on getting Steel Mill for TATA,Spectrum for TATA Deal for Ambani.

    Is this a Cabal?

    Top it all Courts ‘Have No Jurisdiction’.

    Threatening Raja that TATA will retort if he  gives Ambani Spectrum6.2 MHz.

    150 Crores for  a Mine?

  • Not received CBI Summons,Nothing to Hide,Raja said the same.

    watch?v=WSvWi-er9pY

    You have to explain to CBI…

    • The connection you have with Tamil Maiyam
    • Jagath Caspar
    • Source of your Funds for investing in Kalaignar TV
    • Voltas Deal
    • Rathnam
    • Manipuation of Government through Radia.
    • Relationship and deals Raja.

    Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi’s daughter Kanimozhi on Friday (February 18) said she has not received any summons from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing the 2G spectrum allocation scam. “I haven’t got anything of that kind,” the DMK Rajya Sabha MP said in Chennai when asked about reports that CBI may question her as part of its ongoing probe into the scam in which former Union Telecom Minister A Raja has been arrested.

    Asked about CBI searches at the office of DMK-backed Kalaignar TV, she said she was not aware of it. She refused to comment when asked if the latest development would affect DMK-Congress seat-sharing talks. The CBI had earlier in the day carried out searches in the offices and residences of the top management of Kalaignar TV.

    http://www.timesnow.tv/Kanimozhi-clarifies-on-CBI-summons/articleshow/4365587.cms

    Related:

    Fresh transcripts of corporate lobbyist Nira Radia‘s conversations with former telecom minister A. Raja and DMK supremo M Karunanidhi’s daughter and Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhiobtained by India Today reveal a plot the three hatched to mislead the leader.

    A conversation between Radia and Raja at 1.42 am on May 22, 2009 – when the Congress and the DMK were in the thick of negotiations over cabinet berths – had the two panning former Union ministers Dayanidhi Maran and T. R. Baalu, and dismissing Karunanidhi as a “senile” man who’s “not going to be around any longer”. “Someone should give a message in a sealed cover that we have a serious problem with Baalu,” says Raja. 

    “From the Congress, right?” Radia asks. When Raja answers in the affirmative, she says, “Okay. I will tell her. She [NDTVgroup editor Barkha Dutt] is talking to Ahmed Patel [the political secretary to Sonia Gandhi]. I will talk to her.”

    Launching a tirade against Maran, Raja says: “Maran is not fit for infrastructure. He is having controversy.” A few hours later, Radia calls Raja again and tells him she had told the Congress that it was Kanimozhi and not Maran who would represent Karunanidhi for talks on portfolio distribution.

    “They [Congress] are saying that they will not give infrastructure to Baalu and Maran,” said a triumphant Radia. The following day she calls to inform Raja that he should tell M. K. Alagiri (another son of Karunanidhi and the present Union minister for chemicals and fertilisers) about the smear campaign Maran had launched against him.

    “Who planted in the mind of the Congress that Alagiri doesn’t know English?” asks Raja.

    “Not only that but he [Maran] and Stalin tomorrow will be the only one to run the party because the old man is senile and he is not going to be around any longer,” Radia replies.

    ‘Mom will mess it up’

    Radia was simultaneously in talks with Kanimozhi to secure the telecom portfolio for Raja. “They relayed it to your father yesterday that they don’t want to give infrastructure to Baalu or Maran,” Radia says in a call on May 22, at 10.45 am. The PM, Radia says, had conveyed this to Karunanidhi.

    Kanimozhi denies this and says someone senior should convey the news to her and not her mom.

    “Please don’t tell it to Mom. She will mess it up. Ask Ghulam [Nabi Azad] to call me,” Kanimozhi says.

    http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/123775/latest-headlines/karuna-is-a-senile-man-who-wont-last-say-radia-raja.html

    Audio filed under radia tapes.

    .‘Kanimozhi – Raja’ Affair gathers Steam

    Now that Kanimozhi too seems to be involved in the 2G Scam, the city is buzzing with the ‘Kanimozhi-Raja’ love affair. It is an open secret that Mr.Karunanidhi’s daughter –Kanimozhi and the 2G scam tainted Raja are having an affair. This has been widely reported in the local Tamil press. This is also the reason why Karunanidhi’s son had that infamous fight with Raja at the Delhi airport questioning him about his relationship withKanimozhi – despite being married. In fact the ‘affair’ finds mention in Radia – Tata phone conversation

    Kanimozhi married Athiban Bose in 1989 and later divorced him and got married the second time to G.Aravindan and then divorced him too!

    http://fashionscandal.com/index.php/2010/12/kanimozhi-raja-affair-gathers-steam/

     

    11-188819-0-11-20090620-115901.mp3

    2.3. 11-188819-0-11-20090620-115901: Radia speaks to her colleague Manoj Warrier
    A month after the cabinet formation, it is business as usual. They discuss an “income taxmatter” for a client who has told them “We are in a fight. Hum logo ke survival ka sawaal hai”. Her client was unhappy that Radia & Co had not briefed journalists well. After all, she says “aisa to nahin…ki Raja ne samjahaya nahin hoga income tax ka implication.” What was the “implication”?

    Related:

    Not just Raja, the tapes have Radia talking to DMK chief M. Karunanidhi’s daughterKanimozhi as well. The conversations, which were recorded by investigators for the income tax department, raise serious issues about ministerial propriety. The income tax sleuths had sought permission to tap the telephone of Radia, who was being investigated by the CBI and the income tax department in the telecom spectrum scam. These conversations were recorded of one year, starting from August 20, 2008. Raja was lobbying hard to become the next telecom minister and was being helped in this endeavour by Radia. The tapes led to accusations of misconduct by many of these people. Leading journalists in India were heard on the tapes acceding to requests from lobbyists to fix stories and run scripted interviews with politicians. The Central Bureau of Investigationhas announced that they have 5,851 recordings of phone conversations by Radia, some of which outline Radia’s attempts to broker deals in relation to the 2G spectrum sale. The tapes appear to demonstrate how Radia attempted to use some media persons to influence the decision to appoint A. Raja as telecom minister. The original tapes are now annexures in a Supreme Court petition seeking Raja’s prosecution. The opposition parties in India have demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the 2G spectrum scam, which could also to be extended to include a probe into the Radia tapes to ascertain the media’s role in the controversy. The Government is also accused of selectively releasing merely 10 hours of the 2000 hours recorded of the Radia tapes. Home MinisterP.Chidambaram expressed himself against leakage of telephone conversations tapped for investigations but felt “some of it is inevitable”.

    http://socyberty.com/politics/radia-raided-indian-politics/#ixzz18gI9yxHq

    http://ramanisblog.in/2010/12/20/radia-speaks-to-her-colleague-dmk-with-cong-kanimozhitapes/

     

     

  • Raja will behave himself-Radia.

    “It Is Better to have A. Raja In The Telecom Ministry. He Will Behave Himself. Trust Me, He Will Behave Himself”

    Outlook magazine has unearthed 800 new tapped conversations involving the lobbyist Niira Radia in the 2G spectrum scam.

    The conversations, all part of an officially sanctioned tap, are on top of the 140 conversations placed in the public domain by Outlook three weeks ago.

    The intercepts offer fresh political insight into the working of the Kenyan-born British lobbyist who counts the Tatas and Ambanis among her clients.

    While Outlook reporters are still decoding the tapes, it is clear that they shine a grisly mirror on the interplay between government and big business, with the media at the end of the frame, at the time Manmohan Singh was forming his cabinet in May 2009—and in the 2G scam itself.

    What is also clear is that the retention of the DMK’s A. Raja in the telecom portfolio in the UPA-2 cabinet was central to the telecom ripoff, now presumptively estimated by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) at a mind-boggling Rs 173,000 crore.

    In one revealing conversation with Tarun Das, the former head of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Niira Radia says DMK chief Karunanidhi was insistent that the telecom ministry, held by Raja in the first term of UPA, should go to Raja again, although the stench of the 2G scam had already begun to emanate by then.

    “Karunanidhi wants Raja because he is a Dalit. The prime minister is only insistent that former shipping minister T.R. Baalu [charged of corruption in UPA-1] should not be in the cabinet,” says Radia.

    The Congress, Radia hints, was agreeable to this, but Raja’s predecessor Dayanidhi Maran, an aspirant himself, was spreading a canard that he was in touch with Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary, Ahmed Patel, who, Maran claimed, felt he was the more suitable candidate.

    “Karunanidhi is a totally confused man,” says Radia in the conversation.

    She also indicates to Das that the octogenarian Tamil Nadu chief minister was trapped between a daughter who threatens to commit suicide and a wife who wants “to do this”.

    Radia then requests Das to convey to the Congress that they should only talk to DMK Rajya Sabha member Kanimozhi, who has a line to her father, Karunanidhi, and that the Congress must not talk to Dayanidhi Maran.

    “The PM also spoke via her [Kanimozhi],” says Niira Radia.

    Tarun Das interjects at this point and says Raja is very unpopular.

    To which Radia responds: “That’s only with Sunil Mittal [of Airtel]… it is better to have Raja in telecom. He will behave himself. Trust me, he will behave himself….I have promised, Raja has promised that he will speak to Mittal and deal with the matter. Leave that to me.”

    In another chat with an unidentified, female Tamil Nadu politician, Niira Radia reveals that she was clued into the internal politics of the Karunanidhi family that is now central to the 2G scam. She says it was a mistake on the part of Kanimozhi to let go of the Minister of State berth and that she should look after herself first and then think of others.

    “Tell her [Kanimozhi], she should be friends with Azhagiri [Karunanidhi’s elder son],” Radia says.

    The new conversations are contained in the over 5,800 conversations that are now in the safe custody of the Supreme Court.

    The interception of phones belonging to Radia was done by the income-tax department and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) while investigating a “criminal conspiracy between certain public servants and some private persons in the grant of UAS licenses in 2007-08.”

    The Outlook Exclusive comes in the midst of a Parliament paralysed by opposition demands for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe, an investigation by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), and the appointment of a former Supreme Court judge to probe the 2G spectrum allocation scam.

    The leak also comes in the wake of a blazing exchange of open letters between Ratan Tata and former telecom entrepreneur Rajeev Chandrasekhar, and on the very day the Congress-led UPA government assured the Supreme Court of India that it would take every measure to check the leak of further tapes and transcripts involving Tata Sons chairman Ratan Tata.

    http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?268619


  • On Raja intimidation of HC Judge-Radia Tapes.

    High Court Madras
    Image via Wikipedia

    Raja Justice intimidation

    In this conversation, Radia is discussing the Justice Reghupathy case (where the Madras High Court judge alleged that a Union minister had tried to influence him, and Dayanidhi Maran immediately pointed fingers at A. Raja).


    NR: Hi.

    RKC: Hello, how are you?

    NR: I’m still in Bombay, sorry, not been in touch. How are things, tumhare mantri ka naam aa raha hai, yahaan pe…

    RKC: Kisme?

    NR: Yeh, high court matter in Chennai.

    RKC: Us se kya hoga, he had nothing to do with that.

    NR: Nahin, apparently, jo naam media ko circulate hue hain na 9’o clock news ke liye… WohA. Raja, Azhagiri…

    RKC: Hmm…

    NR: To phir Azhagiri drop hua because unhone kaha ki Azhagiri nahin hai, to Raja ka naam sab jagah hai.

    RKC: Hmm.

    NR: This one also came off the air, Rajdeep (Sardesai) he also told me the same thing; NewsX also told me the same thing, everyone is taking his name. In the evening I met Shivnath (Thukral), also from NDTV, sabne yehi bola ki it’s Raja’s…then I spoke to Times of India, because (I was) talking on my gas story, so they said that the name that is being discussed…has been told to the law minister…is Raja.

    RKC: Hmm…I don’t know, I didn’t speak to anybody.

    NR: Just letting you (know)…that his…there are very many people who just spread his name and it’s not true you know, that’s why I just called you….

    The Madras High Court matter also featured in a conversation with Ratan Tata on July 7, 2009…

    Ratan Tata: …I guess the only concern I have is that I understand that Maran is going hammer and tongs for Raja. And I hope Raja doesn’t trip or slip or…

    NR: No, he hasn’t, because the chief justice has issued a statement that no minister called the high court judge.

    RT: Oh, really?

    NR: The Chief Justice of India has issued that statement. So that is clarified. And in any case that did not happen and Maran is made to look a little bit of a fool.

    RT: Okay.

    NR: It was in any case, it was actually the president of the bar association who said, ‘I know the minister’, in an open court and the judge said don’t bring the cabinet minister’s influence in my court.

    RT: Okay.

    NR: Raja had not called up for that at all. That’s got clarified.

    RT: Okay.

    Related:

    The former judge of the Madras High Court, who alleged he was threatened by A Raja — Justice Reghupathy has spoken out saying he is neither scared or confused. Justice Reghupathy on Saturday (December 18) rubbished the earlier reports which said that he feared powerful interests now that the scandal has gone public.

    Justice Reghupathy once again reiterated his stand saying that the letter written to the Justice Gokhale which was eventually forwarded to Justice Balakrishnan did mention A Raja’s name.

    He said, “I have never been scared or confused. I maintain my silence on this issue. All materials are available and I don’t need to say anything further. The name of the minister (Raja) is there in the order itself. No further materials are required now.”

    The statement questions former Chief Justice Balakrishnan’s claim, even as he maintained that the letter sent to him did not mention any minister’s name.

    http://www.timesnow.tv/Neither-scared-nor-confused-Justice-Reghupathy/articleshow/4360783.cms

    From the media reports subsequent to the press release by Justice Gokhale, it appears that I suppressed certain facts to save somebody. I never wanted to publish any confidential letter received by me in my capacity as Chief Justice of India. But as the contents of the letter by the Chief Justice of India to the Chief Justice of Madras High Court, and also the letters written by the Chief Justice of Madras High Court to CJI have already been made public through that Press Release, with much reluctance I am constrained to quote from my personal file, the full text of the report dated 08th August, 2009, given by the then Chief Justice of Madras High Court to me so that the matter be clarified.

    http://indialawyers.wordpress.com/2010/12/16/did-ex-cji-balakrishnan-protect-raja/

    In an embarrassment to former CJI K G Balakrishnan, Supreme Court Judge H L Gokhale on Tuesday (December 14) contradicted his claim that he was not aware that it was former Union Telecom Minister A Raja, who had tried to influence a Madras High Court judge in a criminal case.

    In a statement, Justice Gokhale, who was the chief justice of the Madras High Court at that time, said that in his letter to Justice Balakrishnan, the then CJI, he had clearly referred to the name of Raja.

    Justice Gokhale’s statement totally contradicts Justice Balakrishnan’s claim that there was no mention of any Union Minister in the report sent by Justice Gokhale, then High Court Chief Justice, on Justice S Reghupathi episode.

    http://www.timesnow.tv/articleshow/4360480.cms