Lobbying is an unregulated domain in India and that could be one reason why PR professionals are able to manipulate policies in favour of their paymasters. According to Manu Joseph, former editor-in-chief of Open magazine, that first published the tapes, ‘The Radia Tapes raised many questions, it showed us how lobbying is done, how this country is run, how things work’.Īt the heart of controversy were some of the top-notch businessmen, journalists and a PR professional all of whom seemed to be pushing for a deal between DMK and Congress with A Raja as the Telecom Minister after the general elections in 2009. Probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in relation to the 2G scam, these tapes rocked the corridors of power with the transcripts revealing a cosy nexus between policymakers/ministers, corporate honchos, middlemen and scribes. Recorded between 2007-2009, these tapes included around 5,000 conversations between lobbyist-cum-entrepreneur Niira Radia and her clients – that included top-notch businessmen and politicians – as well as gossip with senior journalists who also seemed to be a conduit of information in the chain of events. In the history of scams in India, the Niira Radia tapes will be remembered as an episode that didn’t just cause embarrassment to the then ruling coalition, the UPA, but also cast a shadow on journalistic ethics, especially when eliciting information is the only concern, with no thought given to the means of doing the same.
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