http://outlookindia.com/
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.
Check out the first tranche of tapes we have put up and watch out for more transcripts and analyses as they get updated
Niira Radia Tapes 'Barkha Dutt... says that he [PM] has no problem with you, but he has a problem with Baalu' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'Have they not lost their heads a bit much in the last 48 hours?' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes Oh God. So now what? What should I tell them? Tell me what should I tell them? |
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| Niira Radia Tapes '[Kanimozhi] agrees that they [DMK] shouldn't have sent the list the way they did' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'PM was not keen on Maran' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'Prime Minister can't talk on a phone to dad and convey... Prime Minister is also, you know, very soft spoken and dad can't hear that clearly also' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'I'll talk to Azad right after I get out of RCR' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'wo Daya kaa aur Rahul ko kuch business interest hai toh' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'My God. You know, he [Dayanidhi Maran] is watching everything you're doing…' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'I was supposed to meet Sonia today ... I've been meeting with Rahul ... I won't get into Sonia in the short term, let me try and get through to Ahmed' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'Congress has been totally confused as to who they need to speak to' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes '...seriously there is only one route, talk to the daughter she will take you to him…' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'Daya is not talking to Ahmed Patel, Daya is not talking to Ahmed Patel, I don't know who Daya is talking to' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'Let me call Ghulam then. Let me call him' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'Congress never said anything about Raja' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'Your friend Sunil Mittal... He's lobbying against Raja... Then I made Barkha call up Congress, and get a statement from Congress' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes Mukesh Ambani said: 'Haan yaar, you know Ranjan, you're right, ab to Congress apnii dukaan hai (now the Congress is our shop).' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'No, you see Congress's only condition is…' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'Then the Leader [Karunanidhi] said then you [Maran] join the Congress' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'He's [Maran] trying to get somebody from the congress say things against Raja to dad' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'We made a very reasonable offer, we've lot of regards for Karunanidhi, we would like to deal with him. We have no regard for Maran' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'I think the government should insist on going in a big way about the Dish TV or whatever, or to make sure the entire cable network is open to everybody' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'So who planted in the minds of the Congress saying that Azhagiri doesn't know English?… I know…' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'Niira Radia: So, I believe Maran has given about 600 crores to Dayalu, Stalin's mother. Vir Sanghvi: 600 Crores, okay? Niira Radia: 600 Crores, is what I'm told. Vir Sanghvi: It's hard to argue with that kind of pressure' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'Niira Radia: You didn't put aviation, Kanni. Kanimozhi: You know, just an aviation I will take it up. No problem' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'Tell Sunil Mittal, you have to work along with Raja for another five years' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'Narayanan is just a messenger. So, now the decision will be taken' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes About Neeta-Shobha De |
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| Niira Radia Tapes Natasha for Neeta |
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| Niira Radia Tapes Counter Campaign' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes Meeting NK Singh and Sharad Yadav |
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| Niira Radia Tapes Vir to Interview MDA |
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| Niira Radia Tapes See how Tony works |
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| Niira Radia Tapes Director and Chief Executive Officer of Vaishnavi Group |
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| Niira Radia Tapes BJP Revolt |
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| Niira Radia Tapes About Inderjit Gupta's article in Forbes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'Ek hi aadmi ko apne ko protect karne kaa hai, woh hai Mukesh Ambani … baakii I don't really care.. Is mein toh kitna bhi 10, 20, 50 crore kharchaa hogaa toh koi problem nahi hai' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes Ratan Tata: 'I'm surprised that Raja after all that you supposedly did for him is playing this game' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes On Tata-Bharati talks rumours |
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| Niira Radia Tapes Instigating Shiv Sena |
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| Niira Radia Tapes On meeting RNT, MDA, Sunil etc |
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| Niira Radia Tapes Managing Director and CEO. Tata Communications: About RCom stake selling and stock manipulations |
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| Niira Radia Tapes Third "wife" of Karunanidhi and mother of DMK MP, Kanimozhi on the Voltas connection and building on TRIL land |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'There is some continuous rumour about this Venugopal Dhoot buying out these [Datacom] guys' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes "Senthil and Rahul Joshi dono ki le lii" |
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| Niira Radia Tapes Probably Tata Power employee |
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| Niira Radia Tapes Judgment Day |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes One way…Totally managed judgment' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes Fixing up panel for Budget discussion on ET Now and a personal meeting |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'I would imagine that share holders are gonna have a view: Why should you start, are you a fool to spend 7 billion dollars to give it for free to your brother?' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes Raja: 'I have a party to run' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes Outlook Business guy travelling to Barmer |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'It's not written by a judge. You can tell that from way it has been written' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'K. Venugopal: How is Anil more influential on the High Court side? Niira Radia: Vanavati' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'There is some fuss about the government coming out with some ordinance on the gas price issue' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'There is information going around that Reliance is pulling out of the Haryana SEZ... that Jhajjar... that there are difficulties' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes SC Caveat |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'Dekho in this country, dono side mein fix karne kii capacity hain... Chhotaa bhaai mobile jyaada hai. ...everything is fixed now these days' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes AI disinvestment -- asset stripping |
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| Niira Radia Tapes On Vir's article |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'Vir Sanghvi actually pre-empted me a little (Laughs) There was a line I was going to take ... In critical resources there should be, uh, national policy... You are not a Banana Republic...' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes Sunil Jain's article -- so stupid! |
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| Niira Radia Tapes Fixing a meeting between MDA abd RNT |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'Empowered Group of Ministers on KG gas, it seems to be… is going to be reconstituted' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'Whoever is giving you this input is really giving you the wrong perspective. ... I know for a fact because I've had someone speak to the PMO myself.' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'You know... we had this Bhardwaj [as law minister] .. [who] used to deal with [Raja] differently. But now ... with Moily … he will just not.. take any chances…. And they ...want the prime minister to pull him up' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes Pre-SLP |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'I want to stay away from this gas issue. You want me to write about it' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes "Pratap Narayan" |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes Director, Tata Power, and then someone else |
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| Niira Radia Tapes Please help identify this (possibly) member of Parliament |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 80(1) D benefit -- one sided with MDA |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'The finance ministry has told ET that there is no benefit for RIL. This will be only applicable for future NELP blocks' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes ICICI, AT&T |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'I understand that Maran is going hammer and tongs for Raja. And I hope Raja doesn't trip or slip' '...the chief justice has issued a statement that no minister called the high court judge.' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes Mahesh Agarwal is lying' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes Mahesh Agarwal's ticker removed |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'I want Manoj to meet Sameer Manchanda because Sameer and Manoj had a long chat in between on the cable thing' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'I met Raja today. I went to see him today and he is alright. He is a happy man. The Chief Justice has given his clearance on him and he's happy. He's really happy with that' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes Praful Patel's made 15,000 crores |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes Anil Ambani itinerary |
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| Niira Radia Tapes Tarun Dass meeting PM on Air India |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes Praful Patel 'screwed up the airline' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes Tata writing to Power Ministry |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes arranging Baijal TATA meeting |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes ADA trying tomanage Azagiri thro Raja |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'Arun Shourie is speaking as a listed speaker in the Rajya Sabha for the BJP but fortunately we have managed to make him the second speaker but made Venkaiah [Naidu] the first' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'It was very helpful, Manoj' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes Sunil Mittal wants to build bridges with Ratan |
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| Niira Radia Tapes Sukukumar, Mint |
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| Niira Radia Tapes Tony has destructive strategy' |
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| Niira Radia Tapes |
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| Niira Radia Tapes 'Maybe maybe I should speak to you on some other phone number or something' 'Why, you think they are monitoring my number?' |
| Cover Story | |
cover story: julian assange The Cables That Weren't Fake anti-India cables appear in Pakistan papers | |
cover story: cyber war WWW.War.Com Forces divided by WikiLeaks wage a bloody guerrilla campaign online | |
cover story: wikiLeaks Munni's Darlings Sell The Silver The leaks expose Pakistan's double game, tarnishes leaders |
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--
Palash Biswas
Pl Read:
http://nandigramunited-banga.blogspot.com/
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