Kanimozhi had a tiff with MK over Raja

The DMK MP threatened to commit suicide: Radia tapes

Newly released Nira Radia tapes show the lobbyist remarking that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi was caught between daughter Kanimozhi who threatened to commit suicide, and his wife.

The  tapes are part of 800 new taped conversations, some of which were released on Saturday by “Outlook” magazine. The tapes contain conversations in which Radia purportedly says that the DMK chief was insistent that the telecom ministry, held by A Raja in the first term of the UPA, go to Raja again.

The conversation took place in May 2009 by when the stench of the 2G scam had already begun to emanate.

“Karunanidhi wants Raja because he is a Dalit. The prime minister is only insistent that former shipping minister T R Baalu (charged with corruption in UPA I) should not be in the cabinet,” Radia is heard saying. The Congress, Radia hints, was agreeable to this. 
The first tranche of tapes, released by “Outlook” and “Open” magazines last month, had created a furore as they exposed the nexus between politicians, industrialists, bureaucrats and well-known journalists with Radia as the central figure.
Radia’s Vaishnavi Communications and allied PR firms have Tata and Reliance as their clients.

The intercepts offer fresh political insight into the working of the Kenyan-born British lobbyist who counts the Tatas and Ambanis among her clients, “Outlook” said while releasing the tapes, adding that all tapes were  part of the officially tapped conversations.

In one revealing conversation with Tarun Das, the former head of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Radia indicates that the octogenarian leader was trapped between a daughter who threatens to commit suicide and a wife who wants “to do this”.

When Das says Raja is very unpopular, 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.”

On the DMK joining the UPA II cabinet, Radia tells Das that the Congress had issued a statement that the DMK would join the government. “Barkha (Dutt?)ne karwalia (Barka has got it done),” she says in one of the tapes, without revealing the full name.

The first set of tapes contain lengthy conversations between the lobbyist and Barkha Dutt, NDTV Group Editor, over the DMK’s chances of joining the UPA government.

The “Outlook” exclusive comes in the midst of a Parliament paralysed by the Opposition demands for a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe, an investigation by the Public Accounts Committee, 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  that it would take every measure to check the leak of further tapes and transcripts involving Ratan Tata.