Radia Tapes Leak: Needle Of Suspicion Closer To Chidambaram?

Home Secretary G.K. Pillai has said that the leaked Radia tapes  just had "juicy elements" to "titillate" the media. The real details on the spectrum scam, he said, are in the remaining 5,000-plus recordings that haven't yet come out will assist investigators. All this in an interview with the Washington Street Journal on December 6. Thus, it would appear that the tapes that were released, involving journalists and businessmen, didn’t reveal anything concerning the real investigations. So why were those leaked? And who did? Pillai then went on to say  “Everything will come out. Then you can pick and choose”.

Following his interview and other reports that he may be somehow involved in the leakage of the tapes Pillai denied the suggestions and stated “Since I have neither heard nor seen the tapes, the allegations that I am leaking these tapes, at the behest of the Home Minister, is totally unfounded and false”. As I stated in another post, if the government denies something, it must be true. Is it so in this case?

Deepak Parekh, of HDFC, in an interview to Shekhar Gupta stated “You can’t have telephones tapped for two years...even if it’s a crook, does it take you two years?...You arrest that individual, you question that individual”. That sounds like simple common sense which seems quite elusive to our investigating agencies. As if the Congress stooges weren’t already a laughing stock, the CBI now raids A. Raja and others after allowing them a long time to wipe their footprints.

In a previous post I had suggested that ‘Chidambaram must come clean’ on the Radia tapes. It should be anybody’s guess that the probe or investigation or inquiry that the Home Minister keeps referring to is hardly likely to reveal who leaked the tapes. Welcome as the leaks were, it is clear that they were leaked to expose certain journalists and businessmen. It reeks of vendetta and a political one at that. Now who could possibly have a motive to do that? It seems unlikely for a ‘babu’ or some lower level official or some investigator to have the motives. 

Therefore, the leak has to come or should have been orchestrated at the very highest level. The one person who handled the two key ministries of Finance and Home during the period of phone tapping is Mr. P. Chidambaram. And having collectively plunged the nation into a sorry mess, the Congress (I) moralises on corruption. Their foul-mouthed spokesman, Manish Tiwari, calls the opposition ‘maoists and naxals’ for blockading the parliament. I for one don’t give a damn about the parliament right now. Parliament can wait. The JPC should be constituted and the first priority for the country has to be recovering black money and the scam money. The PM is very concerned about the ‘future’ of the parliament. If this man had not silently presided over the biggest scam in the country and some more, then the country would not be in this situation.

I had quoted her earlier and do so again. Mobina Gupta writes at Kafila.Org: "One of the anecdotes doing the rounds among journalists at the moment goes like this: A certain politician-unfriendly journalist asks P Chidambaram whether the Congress is embarrassed by the SC’s observation about the PM’s inaction on the A Raja corruption issue. Chidambaram quips back: Are you in the media embarrassed about the tapes?" 

If Chidambaram does not come clean on the tapes and the leaks, the needle of suspicion will get closer to him each day. The media has the chance to put all the pressure on this man to come clean. One hopes they will not let him off the hook,  now that they have learnt their lessons.