Was Gujarati Bahu Niira Radia a ‘Nano link’ between Modi and Tata?
Was Gujarati Bahu Niira Radia a ‘Nano link’ between Modi and Tata?
Ahmedabad, 25 November, 2010
Was “Gujarati Bahu” Niira Radia a link between Ratan Tata and Narendra Modi?
Did Tata Nano car plant come to Gujarat due to Narendra Modi’s famous SMS “Suswagatam”, or also due to middle work of Niira Radia?
Was there Niira Radia behind Gujarat government’s unbelievable and controversial sops to Tata Motors?(The detail of benefits given to the Tata Nano plant was leaked allegedly by a rival business group. Read the detail of that on this link )
Presented with this article are the pictures of the final meeting between Narendra Modi, Ratan Tata and Tata Motors chief Ravi Kant. But who is the lady sitting there in this important meeting held at Gandhinagar Secretariat? Well, she is Niira Radia, visibly a link between Ratan Tata and Narendra Modi. While Modi wanted Nano project, Shri Tata wanted good sops and support of the state government. Mrs. Radia possibly bridge them two.
It is now talked about that Niira Radia, whose firm Vaishnavi communication, looks after PR work of Tata group companies and Times of India’s parent company Bennett and Colman, also could have managed the ‘welcome Tata Nano at Sanand’ campaign in Times of India’s Ahmedabad edition for several weeks in October 2008( with unbelievably high allotment of space) when Nano plant entered Gujarat, possibly to create positive atmosphere about Nano plant.(Visit this link to see Radia owned Vaishnavi group’s client companies)
Interestingly, Radia was also seen with Ratan Tata when Tata came to Modi’s 2004 Vibrant Gujarat Summit. Radia was seen throughout with Ratan Tata at University ground, where the business summit was held.(Times of India Ahmedabad edition former Resident Editor Kingshuk Nag writes about this in detail on his blog – visit his blog post through this link. Nag is known anti-Modi pen, and it is not necessary to believe, each and every word that he writes, but for reference point of view, this blog post is good to visit).
Radia was yesterday questioned by Enforcement Directorate for her alleged role in 2G scam. Her tapes of conversations with powerful people are now in public and generating heat at least among netizens.(Visit all Radia tapes in public on Link 1 and Link 2)
The shocking audio tapes that our TV, Print media don’t publish
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very spicy news. if so, so be it.
I think one should understand that PR people brings in the businesses from businessmen but businessmen don’t contact directly the people they want to interact for the businesses.so, I don’t see anything wrong in this though this can be a sensational masala news for the viewers.
simply Sensationalism , if Radia is TA’tas PR definitely she will be with him
Difficult to believe. Radia deals with Burkha, a known rabid hater of Gujarat AND Narendra Modi. Tata must have decided to come to Gujarat from that SMS rather than any ‘Bahu’ doing the deal. This ‘bahu’ belongs to that special congi financed group of Burkha, Sir Desai and Vir the Brave Sanghvi.
One way or other …
This gujarati bahu has done a big favour to Gujarat by being instrumental in exposing Barkha Dutt and Co.
Shame…… she was part of it as welll ……
Giving in to the pressure from people ………….TOI had to print the story on their website today.
Congratulations to everyone who spread the news and built pressure on media!
Lobbying or lobbyist are nothing wrong,, but to get wrongfully influence by them is criminal or wrong. Nira would have photos with whose who of world being PR of Ratan tata. Soon her photos with obama might surface.
She was a congress mole.Now i understand why congress was shouting from roof tops that lot of concessions have been given to Tatas. Hence TATAs might have thrown her out later when they realised that she was actually spying for congress
There is nothing wrong if a PR officer from a corporate company is seen in the meeting. Almost every small or large company, be it private or government, hires a public relations officer to smoothen their work. However, the bigger question remains what might had transpired in these meetings, especially given the controversial role of Nira Radia in her recent tapes.
It is one thing when a PR analyst works as a facilitator between a Government and a corporate company to smoothen the business deals. But it is a whole different thing when a PR analyst is involved in discussions with the so-called Impartial Journalists (read Barkha Dutt, Vir Sanghvi, Prabhu Chawla, Rajdeep Sardesai etc. etc.) about brokering deals between two political parties to gain the benefits for their respective corporate companies.
I think Nira Radia’s role as well as the role of the so-called secular and impartial journalists must be thoroughly probed by an independent investigative agency unlike CBI. I am pretty sure if the truth comes out, it will be hard to digest. If you listen to the tapes, you would understand how Mukesh Ambani, Anil Ambani and even Tata Groups are involved in this controversy.
Ratan Tata enjoys a very healthy reputation in people’s eyes as an honest industrialist with integrity but with these tapes revealing something else, his reputation will also take a hit.
It is really unfortunate that this unholy nexus between the politicians – police – corporates – media – pseudointellectuals and power brokers is ruining our country badly.
I read the blog from Kingshuk Nag regarding his encounter with Nira Radia.
The most disturbing part was that Nag deliberately skipped mentioning names of Barkha Dutt, Vir Sanghvi and Prabhu Chawla, while he went on to excessive lengths cribbing about Narendra Modi, trying to prove that Nira Radia was Modi’s agent. But you really can’t blame Modi for this. If Modi wanted the Nano plant to come to Ahmedabad, there is nothing wrong if he tried to know what Ratan Tata wanted from Nira Radia and provided him those facilities. Ultimately he did not do it for himself but for the people of Gujarat. Nira Radia was obviously doing her job to smoothen this deal.
Now, when it comes to appoint A Raja as a telecom minister, the tapes between Barkha Dutt and Nira Radia carry weights because now they are openly trying to broker a deal between the Congress-I and the DMK to gain spectrum allocation for Tata groups. But nothing is mentioned regarding that in Nag’s article.
Kingshuk Nag just goes on talking about Narendra Modi in his article and does not even mention the names of the senior journalists who are involved in this. And to add more, I want to ask Kingshuk Nag, how he himself got so much information regarding how the opportunity for Nano plant was provided to Andhra Pradesh initially and given only few hours, how he came to know that Ratan Tata did not want to come to Vibrant Gujarat in 2004 and he was upset about it, how he came to know that Nira Radia had a lunch with Modi in Mumbai on his Goa-Ahmedabad flight or how he came to know that Modi did not give him Nira a contract but merely put her to test etc. etc.
At all times, Kingshuk Nag mentioned that “My sources told me or I came to know from my sources” about the things that he mentioned in the article. Who are these sources? How reliable they are that based on their information, Nag goes on writing articles like this. Probably, Nag will have similar explanations like Barkha Dutt and Vir Sanghvi for collecting the information from various sources.
Kingshug Nag is a sickular journo. Take his pontifications with loads of salt. He works for Bennet & Coleman who in turn were represented by Niira Radia.
These are type of charlatans that do serial murder and then lecture on ‘Ahimsa’.
Gujarati Bahu or No Gujarati Bahu, big media sickulars have been smearing Narendra Modi, probably helped by his aloofness from their crooked selves.
Anyways…….at least this makes a development for Gujrat.
I think that she is the reason why we got the Nano car. The vibrant Guj theme was suggested by her.
The bahu has bought Lakshmi to the state. Why the heck we are cribbing about that?
Grow up guys… Atleast this gujarati bahu has done somthing for gujarat & created lot of employment i…
who has gone and questioned those bengali bahu’s like @sagarikaghose what have they done for bengal…
This is strange way to put it. We all know how Guj have developed. The nano has bought Joy to the common people.
I am sure there would be many people working on behalf of Gujarat government and Tata Company before deciding Nano Plant at Gujarat.
This news seems politically motivated like Congress Scams – always done in parts.
First they will introduce person ABC was part of Nano Plant at Gujarat, then they will pressure ABC to speak that Gujarat government did something WRONG. And that news will ever be hyped in all media.
Thank God, Gujarati knows Mr. Narendra Modi by his people oriented actions otherwise we would be like in hell forever!
May God Bless Righteous if not All!
All this hullabaloo stemming from leaked audio tapes of telephone conversations will ultimately amount to nothing. 90% of the population of this country is functionally illiterate and hardly has any interest in any substantial issue. They are happy watching insipid movies of their celluloid heroes like Rajnikant, Sharuk Khan and other Khans or watching Big Boss or Kaun Banega Crorepathi on the small screen. As for the rest, the age-old saying is quite valid: “Those who matter do not mind and those who mind do not matter.”
Ratan Tata would be stupid to go to the Supreme Court to stop this tamasha. That way, he will only help the embers smoulder a bit longer. Instead, he must retire for a few weeks to some distant vacation spot (like Anchorage in Alaska) where no one will even look for him and meditate upon whatever he wishes to meditate upon. In a few weeks, the whole thing will blow over and some other scam or scandal (in which, hopefully, his name will not be involved) will take the centre stage and grip the netizens’ imagination and attention.
BTW, I cannot help admiring this woman for the number of men of all sorts she has been able to take for a ride (literally). Gujarat should indeed be proud of having a bahu of such calibre. Unlike the other public relations consultant (the Kashmiri-born Kerala bahu who suddenly shot into the public domain and faded away also in a short time – no prize for guessing whom I am alluding to), she is not even good-looking.
At the same time, Gujarathis who are gloating over what their bahu has done for their state must not overlook the significant role she had played in enthroning that paragon of virtue and rectitude, the most incorruptible and only one, A Raja as the Telecom Minister in the union cabinet!
-Can anyone investigate the stealth progress of Jindal steels exponentially since 2005?
-There must be something fishy with the congi. leader’s business house which has seen exponential growth since last 5 years whereas others have stayed-put or closed shops due to global crises.
Here is the wikipedia page for Nira Radia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nira_Radia
Please note that the Wikipedia page keeps changing – here is a copy of yesterdays page – recorded by someone http://ghulammuhammed.blogspot.com/2010/11/nira-radia-and-outlook-magazines-expose.html
Excerpt
“Radia’s family had moved to Britain after they fled Lagos, Nigeria, in the aftermath of the Idi Amin-led upheaval in Uganda in the 1970s, and she, the youngest sibling of four sisters and a brother, grew up in Londons suburbia.
Nira Radia’s father, who converted to Islam and was rechristened Iqbal Menon, was an agent for Westland Helicopters in East Africa, and soon started an aircraft charter business in the UK.
A British citizen, Ridia moved from England to Surajkund, India with her three sons after her marriage to a Kutchi businessman, Janak Radia failed. In 2003, Dhiraj Singh, a business partner, was arrested with an accomplice for allegedly kidnapping her 18-year-old son.”
Several points
*I read that she was born in Africa and raised in Britain. the Wikipedia page yesterday also said that her father converted to Islam and renamed himself to Iqbal Menon.
*She got the last name Radia because she married a Kutchi businessman.
*HER ORIGINAL LAST NAME (BEFORE MARRIAGE) is not known – Hence it cannot be said that she is Gujarati (other then the Outlook magazine allegation)
*People who cannot distinguish between Gujaratis/Kutchis/Marwaris are very similar to people who think that all Southies are “Madrasis”.
If she is born in Africa and raised in Britain and is a British citizen – How is she a Gujarati? Was she born in a Gujarati family? DeshGujarat can you please check up and find out whether this allegation is true?
Kalmadi and A.Raja are SMALL FISH. People who think that Kalmadi or Raja are the corrupt ones are being very naive.
People like Nira Radia are middlemen, who are required for “big people” to communicate with each other – this allows for plausible deniability. IF A approaches B directly and gets rebuffed, then A loses face and enmity is created between A and B. Instead if A approaches B through Radia, then if there is a rebuff it is conveyed indirectly so no one loses face.
Ratan Tata is a businessman – his finance people will give him a report and then they will decide based on that where to put Nano factory not from Radias sweet talks – that is not how business works.
Also one more point – you already know how much anti-Gujarati all these leftist newspapers/magazines are. then how come people immediately believed that she was Gujarati without any proof? so if a Tamil girl marries a Japanese – she can be classified as a “Japanese girl”?
Even more important how come a British citizen is openly moving around in the corridors of power in India?
Babloo:
You say that Niira was married to a Kutchi businessman. My copy of the Oxford Atlas shows Kutch as a district of Gujarat (in fact, the largest district area-wise in the country) and “bahu” means “daughter-in-law”. No one has called Niira a daughter of Gujarat.
Could you please clarify why you object to Niira Radia being called a “Gujarati bahu”?
@ Nagarajan and others like them,
Every water drop in a pond or blood drop in human body, no matter how insignificant they are, they are significant. To overlook or inspire Indian Citizens to overlook biggest national scams is not only unpatriotic but also culprit.
Pretend if every blood drop in our body says they do not matter, that’s why they are leaving our bodies?? what happens???
Further more, Mr. Ratan Tata has been CEO of $72 B company, do not tell he is stupid, people will think bad for your sanity or motives……
May God Bless Righteous if not All!
So What ?
If this is her profession of liasing, so be it !
At least she is doing her job efficiently, carefully
and within the allowed boundaries of legality,
I believe. At least she is not a corrupt polititian.
She charges for her services.
And by the way, Tatas are not ‘Murkh’ – like these
paid-for media walas…
V Nagarajan,
You are right about the Bahu part. I just got angry after seeing the heading of the article on Outlook – especially after the constant anti-Gujarat chorus in leftist magazines/newspapers. sorry about that.
Here is a deal. The woman is a lobbyist in India. Her job is to do lobbying for her clients. Lobbyists don’t care who is their client, as long as they are paid. Most time, they are manipulating the system and also corrupting the people, means middlemen for the contacts at the higher level.
The only stupid thing happened that she was sitting in the meeting with CM and the worst is that there are photos. This is a fault of CM and his people. You don’t want people to see lobbyists with the office holder who has the power and the authority to make decisions. These photos are showing that Lobbyists influenced the decision of the Gujarat government to give TATA what he wanted or what he needed.
If this happened in the USA, it will be called scandal and then investigation start. Many Lobbyist went to jail and Abrahm was the biggest catch who just came out from the jail and now doing community services. It also damaged the carriers of many Senators, Congress men and Government officers.
Abdhulghani Desai:
I regret to point out that you are in error on various points about lobbyists in general and their activities in the US in particular. For one thing, there is a large population of lobbyists in Washington, D.C. and most of the hotels, restaurants and similar hospitality sectors depend for their business on lobbyists and their targets. Hence, lobbying is a thriving profession not only in the US (next only to the oldest profession) but also in the rest of the world. Are you aware of the fact that Indian Government has been engaging lobbyist(s) for the past several years in Washington, D.C. and has been paying them fat sums of mpney for influencing senators and congressmen to take pro-India stance on verious issues affecting US-India relations?
Abrahm got into into trouble not because he was a lobbying but was caught giving bribes in cash and kind to a number of law-makers, governors and others. Of course, it is given that all lobbyists are bribe givers. Legislators and bureaucrats don’t do favours out of any love for you. They do it for sex or money or both (as it has been alleged in the case of an IAS officer in the Ministry of Home Affairs in New Delhi who was recently booked for passing on confidential information to some corporate houses in the Telecom industry).
Ultimately, here is the maxim adhered to by all successful lobbyists: Do whatever you can to get the job done for your clients but, for God’s your clients’ sake, do not get caught!
Indi:
I can’t figure out why you have included poor me among the list of people who have apparently pissed you off because of their ardent support for Niira Radia, the lobbyist.
In my first comment on the subject, I was just making a sarcastic remark about the Gujarathis gloating over what the “Gujarathi Bahu” had done for their state. If you can’t read the humour between the lines, it is your problem, not mine.
In my second comment, I was just pointing out to Babloo that, by the very facts he/she had meticulously assembled about Niira from Wikipedia and other sources, he/she cannot object to Niira being called a “Gujarathi Bahu”. Babloo has also graciously acknowledged the error.
Mr. Nagarajan, let me clear that lobbyist in the USA is a legal. If they represent foreign Govt. they have to register themselves as a foreign agents. That’s all. It is well known public that there are lobbyists representing Indian Govt for quite some time. Nowadays, almost every country has lobbyists in the USA.
It is also well known that you can’t do a damn thing in the Washington without Lobbyists.
What I said in between the lines to point out the issues. Please read again, you might understand little better than before. Thanks.
Abdulgahni Desai:
I take your point but I wish to highlight one other vital point. If there is no hanky-panky, where is the harm in the lobbyist also accompanying her principal for a discussion with the CM of Gujarat and being also photographed together? The photo was obviously taken quite openly and not surreptiously. Only, if it comes out later that some bribery was involved with the lobbyist as the conduit (as it happened in Abrahm’s case), the sordid drama will begin and not until then. After all, there has been absolutely no news so far (founded or unfounded) that the shift of the Nano plant to Gujarat from W Bengal was not above board. Modi openly rolled out a red carpet to Tata but there has been no accusation that Tata paid any bribe to Modi in return – at least until now. The publication of that photo is absolutely out of context and is totally unrelated to the 2G spectrum scam. in connection with which only the Radia tapes have been put in the public domain.
Mr. Nagarajan, thank you very much for taking my points.
You got good points and making lots of sense, right now.
Honestly, Indians industrialists, journalists and especially politicians have no clue how to deal with Lobbyists. They will learn lot from this episode.
Have you ever seen American lobbyist siting with her/his client and the politician who is Chief of the State with absolute power and authority to make the decision?
Let’s see what happens, if investigation starts.
Note: Though the question of this article still stands.
“Did Tata Nano car plant come to Gujarat due to Narendra Modi’s famous SMS “Suswagatam”, or also due to middle work of Niira Radia?”
@ Nagrajan Brother,
My support is not for Nira Radia, my support is for Mr. Modi. I was countering with my ideas and understanding to prevent any allegations moving to Mr. Modi out of this…
Sorry, if I hurt your feelings.
May God Bless Righteous, if not All!
I don’t think Modi has done anything wrong. If Mrs.Radia is handling the PR of the TATA’s, she’s just doing her job well.
These journalists have no other work to lobby .Journalists have to just report the news, if they want to do what Mrs.Radia is doing, they should not call themselves journalists. They should open shop like Mrs.Radia and see what money they can make out of lobbying. Now we know that Vir, Barkha and many other unknown journalists are paid for the lobbying that they do.