The scandal over the undervaluing in the sale of spectrum in India is evidently in the $40-$50 billion range and has already brought down the minister responsible and could quite possibly bring down the government.
When I was in India early last year it appeared that the scandal was common knowledge but that no one was in a position to make it a public issue. Apparently a whistle blower provided the evidence. (sorry for the formatting) Mike -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Appu Esthose Suresh Sent: Tuesday, November 16, 2010 6:38 AM To: sarai list Subject: [Reader-list] The man who felled a king by Chandan Mitra **How Raja of all scam was uprooted by a reporter. This is a report appearedin Pioneer today, a very unusual one, an editor writing about the reporter-Gopikrishnan. A must read! *The Pioneer felicitates J Gopikrishnan, who unearthed the spectrum scam* For a long time, I did not even know that J Gopikrishnan was a stringer based in Thiruvananthapuram working for *The Pioneer*'s now-aborted Kochiedition. So when he came to Delhi pleading for a job at the headquarters once the Kochi edition shut in 2007, I was rather sceptical. I told Bureauchief Navin Upadhyay that although I had noticed a few bylined stories byhim, Gopi had no exposure to Delhi and, therefore, was unlikely to have any worthwhile contacts here. Navin, however, persuaded me to try him out for three months. In fact, the letter of appointment specifically mentioned thisalong with a "stipend" that was truly laughable by Delhi standards. Gopi did not break any earth-shaking stories during the trial period. But his sincerity, diligence, dogged pursuit of stories and pleasing personality made up for that. He was given a proper appointment letter after threemonths although his salary remained rather low. My opinion began to change after friends in Left parties began to mention him to me in Parliament's Central Hall, pointing to the depth of his knowledge of the telecom sector. Officially, he was on the Left beat so I still did not attach too muchsignificance to that. Then the cascade began. Starting mid-2008, he broke one story after anotheron scandalous ramifications of the 2G spectrum allotment. The issue was complex and most people don't understand its intricacies even now. But Gopihad cracked the scandal. And as one exclusive report followed another, information flowed to him likea magnet attracting pins. Navin worked hard on these reports, filling up missing links, polishing them and quoting relevant documents. The 2G scamwas Gopi's passion and he scoured the Net, apart from visiting officers intheir offices and homes, gathering material. He had friends across the political "spectrum"; Gopi, despite his Kerala origins, was ideology-neutral. I don't know how much pressure he came under and from which quarters. But Ifaced more pressure over these reports than anything else in my 27 years ofjournalism, of which nearly 20 have been spent in senior editorialpositions. I am proud to have withstood them. But even more proud that Igave a dynamic young man from Kerala a break in the national media, a breakhe used to do the nation a sterling service. J Gopikrishnan has made historyand *The Pioneer* basks in his achievement. *The Pioneer* Investigative Team asked Gopi to unravel his journey from afledgling political reporter to giant killer. Excerpts from a chat: *Q: *How did you come across the 2G scam story? *A: *We sensed a scam when Swan and Unitech started offloading shares atwhopping prices of `4,500 crore and `6,200 crore in September 2008. Bureauchief Navin Upadhyay asked me to dig for information and luckily we got agreat whistleblower, who knew the ins and outs of the Telecom Ministry. Heonce told me the PM was totally unhappy with Raja and had summoned him toask what was going on. Slowly, the whistleblower narrated the entire range of corruption in theMinistry. Those days, Minister Raja was making false claims that he hadfollowed his predecessors. This young Government officer told me about theparking of funds in front companies by the Minister and his associates inthe name of relatives. He told me who the actual beneficiaries of the scamwere, including corporates, politicians and lobbyists. This officer asked me to talk to my Editor and get his consent and only thenwould he reveal further. The Editor told me to go ahead and thewhistleblower became a goldmine of hidden information for *The Pioneer*.Days and nights of discussion and checking the authenticity of factshappened in his office and at many crowded places in the city, once itbecame important to avoid detection. *Q: *Which was the first story you did and what was the reaction? *A: *After finding out the gamut of front companies dealing in real estate,we decided to expose Raja's ill-gotten wealth. Chandan Mitra and NavinUpadhyay saw all documents and decided to go ahead with the series. Thefirst story appeared on December 11, 2008, on Raja's main real estate frontcompany, Green House Promoters. The details of other companies and hiddenirregularities in the spectrum scam were published over the following days. *Q: *Did you come under pressure to stop the campaign? How did you ward them off? *A: *I met Raja after the first report, as directed by the Editor. Healleged that I was being funded by his rivals in the party and even told mesome names. He was visibly shaken asking me how I got the details of hispersonal assets. He requested me to avoid writing. My reply was that I had been deputed by the Editor only to take his version, nothing else. Rajaagreed to speak, but repeatedly requested me to stop writing further onthis. Similarly, many corporate groups were after me with the same plea. Imust say none threatened or behaved badly. Those days, Raja was planning to conduct the 3G auction at cheap base rateswithout Cabinet's approval. Many agents from the corporate sector requestedus to stop our series of exposes, saying our reports would force theGovernment to refer the 3G auction to an EGoM. We told them that was exactlywhat we wanted. But I must say some friends with contacts in high placeswarned me I may be targeted. It was a hidden warning, which I ridiculed. It would not be fair to reveal what kind of offers were made by differententities to avoid the 3G issue going to an EGoM. But finally, the Cabinetreferred it to an EGoM, which put Raja out of the picture and the nationnetted `1.06 lakh crore. *Q: *Did any political or corporate entity offer you financial inducementsto stop writing on this? *A: *Yes, they did. The figures were mind-boggling. Corporate lobbyists andRaja's people even asked me to stop informing the Editor and end the seriesabruptly. I told them even the meeting with them was in the knowledge of theEditor and the Bureau chief. Some shameless fellows tried to access Raja,claiming friendship with me. Some were acting as double agents. One toplobbyist was actually a double agent. That person was leaking informationagainst Raja while providing information to him too. Pressure on the whistleblower was enormous by now, but he stood by us fearlessly. There wereseveral politicians who enlightened and encouraged me. Some bureaucrats andpolice officials also guided our investigations. *Q: *Do you think the matter will end with Raja's resignation or will moreheads roll? *A: *I personally feel the court cases filed by Subramanian Swamy andPrashant Bhushan would come to logical conclusions, leading to thecancellation of all licences which were found illegal by CAG. The court maydirect auctions to be held like the old petrol pump scam of Satish Sharma. Idon't expect anything from the Government in this matter. Some persons,including Raja, may face the wrath of the law. I don't think anything harshwill happen to corporates from the Government's side. After the CAG reportand PAC findings, if the Government has the willpower, it can -- by executive order -- cancel all licences and order auction, which willdefinitely fetch around `2-3 lakh crore. *Q: *How do you think the Government can make the spectrum policytransparent and above board? *A: *Spectrum management should be handed over to ISRO, but no politicianwould like that for obvious reasons. In India, spectrum is not yet audited.No one knows how much spectrum is available. This was purposefully done for making easy money. First the Government should ask an organisation like ISROto audit spectrum availability in all departments. Only then willtransparency come. *Q: *After Telecom what? Do you have more targets in mind? *A: *No idea. I felt totally exhausted upon learning of Raja's resignation.I was expecting good news on Sunday, when sources told me Pranab Mukherjeehad firmly asked Karunanidhi at 11.30 am to remove Raja. This was doubly confirmed when they later said Raja was forced to sign the papers around5.30 pm. Anyway, no idea what's for me next.life will go on. I was covering Health and Left (parties) those days. By a stroke of luck, Raja came on our radar. *Virtual pat on back* Within minutes of A Raja submitting his letter of resignation to the Prime Minister late Sunday night, India's twitterati erupted into joyouscelebrations. Pouring ridicule and vitriol on the scam-tainted Minister,twitterers across India heaped praise on *The Pioneer* and tweeted congratulatory messages to J Gopikrishnan by the hundreds. Several of thetweets were RT'ed, or re-tweeted, amplifying the overwhelming outpouring ofgoodwill for the paper. Had the news not broken on a Sunday, that too latein the night, when people are usually offline, both *The Pioneer* and Gopiwould have trended globally, which they almost did, such was the enthusiastic response. The congratulatory tweets continued to pour in through Sunday night and Monday from Indians around the world. Tellingly,many of the tweets pointed out that *The Pioneer* persisted with a storythat no 'big' paper would touch or 24x7 news channels would report. Along with Raja, Delhi's self-appointed 'MSM', or mainstream media, was the clear loser! _________________________________________reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.Critiques & CollaborationsTo subscribe: send an email to [email protected] with subscribe in the subject header.To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-listList archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> !DSPAM:2676,4ce2974f308681387333369! _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
