The Radia Tapes Controversy (also known as the 2G Spectrum Scam) is one of the Scandals of India took place between 2008 and 2009. It involved political lobbyist, Nira Radia of Vaishnavi Communications, and several of her media friends, such as Vir Sanghvi, Hindustan Times' editorial director, and Barkha Dutt, the group editor of NDTV. In these tapes, they are heard making promises to Radia, her political friends, and her corporate clients. The tapes show how one woman attempted to influence government policy via the control of journalists and politicians, how she destroyed careers and reputations.
During a one year period, the Home Ministry gave the Indian Income Tax Department to go-ahead to tap Radia's phones. It was part of their ongoing investigation into the possibility of money laundering, tax evasion, financial practices that were restricted. The decision was made after finance ministry had received an anonymous letter claiming Radia was a covert operator to a foreign government.
One question that was asked was, why was this particular anonymous letter taken so seriously? And how did it make it's way to the ministry's highest levels? It is believed that the letter came from a powerful organization that was known to some of the ministry's important people.
It was in 2010 that a magazine called OPEN published a story that included transcripts from some of these conversations between Radia and others involved, where Radia attempted to make deals related to the 2G Spectrum Allocation. Radia attempted to use people from the media to influence the decision of having A. Raja appointed as the telecom minister. Radia influenced news reports and Parliament discussion at the request of corporate houses.
The Motive Behind The Scandal
The motive here was the abuse of power by one small group of very powerful people within the public sector; politicians, journalists, and businessman. This group attempted to subvert the democratic system for their own benefit and interests.
Those involved tried to claim it was a breach of privacy, being tapped secretly. However, the argument is that it involved public interests, therefore the public should be made aware of what was going on. The media felt they had an obligation to report this to the public and their fundamental rights for freedom of speech. At one point, a media blackout that banned the publishing of the tapes would have defeated both freedoms of expression and public interest just to save the privacy of a small powerful, but a corrupt group of people trying to manipulate the system.
One main player who tried to prevent publication of these transcripts was Ratan Tata, an Indian industrialist. However, it was felt that the conversations revealed a number of immoral and illegal acts that the public had a right to know about. The strange part is that, where other people's reputations and careers were ruined, Tata emerged from the incident with barely a scratch to his, even though he was heard on these tapes trying to manipulate policy.
It was reported that only 100 out of 5,800 tapped conversations had been made public and these were enough to reveal how India was being run, the subservience of politicians, how court decisions can be fixed, how MP's will lobby for big business houses, and that everything in the country is managed by corporate.
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