In a “mutual relationships ka
agreement” Patil asks for a monthly fee of Rs 50,000 for putting in as many
questions as NISMA wants. Says Patil: “To mujhe lagta hai ki kam se kam chhe
lakh rupye to saal mein aana chahiye (I think I should at least receive Rs
6 lakh a year).” A brief excerpt from the conversation:
Patil: Main... Kitna amount karenge. Aisa
monthly basis pe (What amount will you pay me on monthly basis).
Reporter: Aap bataiye. Aap jo kahein
(Tell me whatever you want).
Patil: Bhai dekho. Aapko bhi to helpful hona hai is sab se (You
see it is all going to be helpful to you).
Reporter: Haan (Yes).
What...What...What is the...Aapke samajh se kya (What do you think it
should be)? Because Parliament is in session four - five months in a year.
Patil: Yes.
Reporter: Jo bhi hai (Whatever it is).
But we will pay you throughout the year.
Patil: Yes.
Reporter: Haan (Yes). To (Then)
that is the...Throughout the year.
Patil: Mutual nature.
Reporter: Mutual relationships.
Patil: Mutual relationships ka
agreement.
Reporter: Haan (Yes).
Patil: To mujhe lagta hai ki kam se kam
chhe lakh rupya to
saal mein aana chahiye.(Then I think I should get at least six lakh rupees
a year).
Reporter: Theek hai (Okay).
Patil: To 50 hazaar kam se kam hona chahiye.(Then
it should at least be fifty thousand).
Reporter: Theek hai (Okay). Done sir. Usko ....that is not a problem.
Because we want trusted people even if they are very small. 2 -3 trusted people. That is enough.
Patil: Yes, yes.
Patil also admits to spending Rs 1.5 crore in the last general elections and asks for help in the range of Rs 10-15 lakh for the next elections. Which NISMA promises to pay him by cheque after TDS. He too doesn’t want cash but a cheque in the name of a Maharashtra registered company with an account in Delhi.
Later on in the day, he also
ends up signing 19 blank parliamentary forms used for submitting questions in
the Lok Sabha, some of which we make good use of. The questions submitted on
them by NISMA, with the help of Harish Badola, was for me the most satisfying
part of Operation Duryodhana.
Excerpts from some of the
questions:
Whether the Railway Ministry
has placed any order for purchase of the Yossarian Electro Diesel engine from Germany?
Is the ministry aware that the Tom Wolfe committee report in Germany has halted
its induction into the Euro Rail system?
Whether the Government has
given sanction for the seed trial of Salinger Cotton of Monsanto? If so, has a
report been prepared on Catch 22 cotton so far?
Has the ministry lifted the
1962 ban it imposed on the book “For whom the Bell Tolls” by Ernest Hemingway
and the 1975 ban on Ken Kesey’s book “One Flew Over a Cuckoo’s Nest” and Hunter
Thomson’s book “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”? If so, when were the bans
removed?
Whether the government is aware that a domestic flying license has been denied to Cobra Cargo for starting operations in India? Since when has Semper Sursum Private Limited, the holding company of Cobra Cargo, applied for the domestic cargo license?
And now, that I have paid homage
to Yossarian, I am a little upset that Major Major and Milo Mindbinder got left
out. But I am happy that the Yossarian brand name has infiltrated the German
market in spite of strong opposition from Tom Wolfe thanks to the
foresightedness of the Indian parliamentarians. As for the Catch 22 and
Salinger cotton strains I hope they are tremendously profitable for farmers and
that the lifting of the bans on Hemingway, Thomson and Kesey, long due and
deserved, will lead to a tremendous fillip to the publishing industry in
general.
And as for Semper Sursum Private
Limited I feel that the Union of India should promptly issue them a domestic
cargo license, if that facility exists, so that Cobra Cargo can fly the books
of Kesey, Thomson, Hemingway, Salinger, Wolfe and Joseph Heller all over India
free of charge. Which undertaking Cobra Cargo has given to me personally.
As for the British authors, the
motley bunch of Shakespeare, Kinglsey Amis, P.G. Wodehouse, Charles Dickens,
Thomas Hardy, Jane Austen, and many others, who might be fuming at not having
made it into the record books of the Indian Parliament, more specially because
these American upstarts seem to have made it, I furnish my unqualified
apologies and say that there are many mad Allahabadis around and it’s only a
matter of time before this lopsidedness is rectified.
But to continue with the serious
matter of Operation Duryodhana.
Significantly, in the course of
the operation, the MPs had no qualms about taking money through the middlemen
or in front of their secretaries. In many cases, it was their secretaries who
were doubling up both as negotiators as well as conduits for the moolah. None
of the 11 MPs showed any embarrassment in exposing themselves in front of their
staff. Some, perhaps, even think that taking money through their staff or
middleman gives them some kind of legal insularity. If nothing else, at least
circumstances for a glib byte to the media: “It wasn’t me. It was my villainous
secretary doing stuff behind my back.”
It was, however, a conscious
effort on the part of the COBRAPOST team to videotape cash accepting visuals
with respect to every MP primarily as a legal imperative. In their absence, it
becomes easier for politicians to unleash semantics that derail truth and fact.
On May 19, Harish takes us to
meet the BJP MP from Maharashtra, Y.G. Mahajan. The Jalgaon legislator was the
second one from Maharashtra to whom Harish introduced NISMA. Before the
meeting, outside Mahajan’s house, the reporter proposes to Harish that Mahajan
be paid directly by the NISMA representative for his efforts. However, Harish,
would have none of it. Harish explains that the MP might get offended and not
help us if we offered him money directly.
The first meeting with Mahajan
was a brief affair as the MP had to go out for shopping. After an introduction
by Harish, the reporter reads out a question to Mahajan on the safeguards of
India’s biological wealth such as neem, bitter-gourd and jamun against
bio-piracy by international companies. The reporter also apprises him about the
case where an international company had patented the medicinal properties of
neem as its own findings and that it took 10 years of intense litigation to
finally revoke this patent. The MP hears NISMA out and promises his full
cooperation. To recap in Mahajan’s words: “Aap material dete rahiye main
uthate rahoonga,” (You keep on giving me material, I will keep on raising
the issues).”
Mahajan soon departs. But outside
the MP’s house, the reporter and the middleman begin a conversation on giving
kickbacks to MPs. In this conversation Harish tries to convince the reporter
that delivering money to the legislators was the job of the middleman and no MP
would like to take the money upfront thereby increasing the risk of exposure to
“sting operations”. So, Rs 25,000 due to Mahajan is handed over to Harish.
In the second meeting with Mahajan, the reporter decides to go alone without the middleman. In this meeting, the MP informs the reporter that a few questions have been tabled in the Lok Sabha on NISMA’s behalf. Though the COBRAPOST team had read out only one question on bio-piracy to Mahajan in the first meeting, the MP signed many more to increase their probability of being selected in the Parliament’s balloting procedure. Mahajan, in fact, had the highest strike rate with respect to questions being selected in the whole of Operation Duryodhana. Eight of NISMA’s questions put in by Mahajan actually got tabled.
The third visit to Mahajan’s
residence takes place on October 27. The NISMA representative talks about the
questions that Mahajan has asked on NISMA’s behalf in the Lok Sabha. For asking
some more questions in the winter session the MP is given an advance of Rs
10,000 and another sum of Rs 15,000 is promised to him once the questions are
tabled in the House. Mahajan accepts the money with glee but with a token
gesture to social propriety. “Rehne do rehne do… Uski koi zaroorat nahi
rehti Madam (Leave it, leave it, there is no need for this),” the MP
cursorily utters at the offer of money, but is incapable of hiding his smile
behind his bushy moustache.
Later, Harish tells us that
Mahajan complained to him that the Rs 10,000 given to him in this meeting was
too petty a sum. To recapitulate the middleman firsthand: “Wo mere se kah
rahe the na… ki dus hi diye hain… unko bolo ki ye to kam hain (He was
telling me that they have given me only ten thousand, tell them that it is
less).”
For those of you wondering about
the methodology of Operation Duryodhana in reaching out to MPs it will be
pertinent to say that the COBRAPOST team essentially went where the middlemen
took us. So the particular configuration of MPs that finally emerged had all to
do with the particular middlemen that the team came into contact with. If it
had been a different set of middlemen, the configuration of MPs would obviously
have reflected that.
Also, while the COBRAPOST team
made an effort through various middlemen to collect photostat copies of
filled-up question forms submitted by various MPs in the Parliament, at the
behest of NISMA, it wasn’t possible always to do so or to do so with respect to
every MP. As for details (see boxes) regarding the questions given and
tabled, on various occasions reliance has been placed upon the individual MPs
or their middlemen confirming to the reporter that questions given by the NISMA
have been submitted by them. If the MP or middleman concerned mislead the
reporter for any reason the COBRAPOST team, in the absence of a copy, would
have no way of knowing. Unless the Parliament keeps a record of questions
submitted by various MPs.
Interestingly, at times, the
middlemen would also get some MPs (those who had nothing to do with Operation
Duryodhana) to sign and submit question-forms similar to the ones being
submitted by any one of the 11 MPs. This was just to increase their chances of
getting selected in the balloting procedure. Of course, those MPs did it either
for the goodness of the cause of the SSIs or because of their personal
relationship with the middlemen concerned.
It was middleman Gupta who put us
through to Chotiwala, personal secretary to the RJD MP, Manoj Kumar. With NISMA
it is Chotiwala who acts as Manoj Kumar’s principal front man. He is reluctant
to arrange a direct meeting with the MP on most occasions, fearing that it
would lower his importance as well as chances of earning a fast buck. Even
Manoj Kumar is not totally happy with him, thinking him inefficient and
stubborn. After accepting Rs 25,000 from NISMA through Chotiwala, Manoj Kumar
demands another Rs 75,000, ostensibly to arrange meetings of three other MPs
with NISMA. Apart from Chotiwala, even the MP makes the demand on phone. The Rs
75,000 is given to him the next day at his residence. Chotiwala accepts the
cash on his behalf after the MP is told that the money is being handed over to
his secretary. At subsequent meetings Manoj Kumar reconfirms the receipt of Rs
1 lakh paid to him for asking questions in the Lok Sabha. Says Manoj Kumar: “Haan
oo de diya hai (Yes he has given me).”
Of the many questions that he
submits in Parliament on NISMA’s behalf three are selected in the monsoon
session. It turns out, however, that the excuse of extracting a further Rs
75,000 from NISMA, to introduce more MPs to us so as to facilitate their
lobbying needs, was just that: a clever ploy. He takes another Rs 10,000 as
advance for submitting more questions in the winter session of the Lok Sabha
and it remains to be seen whether they are selected. Demands on NISMA for more
money for putting in these extra questions in the coming winter session have
already been made.
In yet another meeting he likens
the reporter to Lakshmi, the Goddess of wealth and prosperity: “Aap jaise
Lakshmi hain waise hi Lakshmi aate rahe (You are like Lakshmi, so let
Lakshmi keep coming to me).”
But he also expresses misgivings
in this meeting about scandals in general, which have apparently been fed to
him by Chotiwala. Says Manoj Kumar: “Nahin oo bahut ashankit ho raha
hai…aajkal itna scandal ho raha hai na….wahi jo scandal hota hai yahan…visual
vagerah wo sab (No he is very suspicious …These days so many scandals are
happening…where they take these visuals).” The reporter successfully deflates
the situation saying that these were just canards being spread by Chotiwala.
Suresh Chandel
It is middleman Vijay who takes
us to Suresh Chandel, the BJP MP from Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh. Vijay takes
the reporter to the staircase leading to the MP’s house, thereafter she is
escorted to the MP’s door by the local laundry woman.
Like in our earlier meeting with
other MPs the team begins its tête-à-tête with Chandel with a brief
introduction and then reads out the questions NISMA wants raised in the Lok
Sabha. The question given to Chandel pertained to protection of SSIs in the
post-GATT era. After listening to the questions Chandel assures that he will
submit them in the Parliament. The MP accepts Rs 20,000 for the job.
Incidentally, the little room that Chandel uses as his office in his residence
has photographs of Swami Vivekananda, Keshav Baliram Hedgewar and Guru
Golwalkar adorning the room and staring down on all visitors as indeed Chandel
himself.
As the meeting comes to an end,
the reporter comes out of his house only to find the laundry woman waiting
there for her pound of flesh. The reporter brings her back to the MP, who
agrees to pay her a tip for bringing us to him. Vijay also demands Rs 15,000 from
us after the meeting. We pay him.
Our second meeting with Chandel
was held on August 16 when the Monsoon session of Parliament was still in
progress. In this meeting he confirms that the question NISMA gave him has been
tabled in the Parliament. Chandel also nods in approval when asked whether the
sum of Rs 20,000, which was paid to him in the first meeting, was enough. The
MP also talks at length about the various parliamentary provisions he could
avail of to raise issues pertaining to the SSIs. Says he: “To zero hour mein
utha ke iska hungama kiya jaa sakta hai (We can raise the issue in the zero
hour and create a furore).” A day later, Chandel calls the reporter to inform
that he had received the answer to the question he had put on NISMA’s behalf in
the Parliament.
In the third meeting with Chandel
on October 5, the COBRAPOST team begins by reading out the questions that NISMA
wants to be tabled during winter session. In this meeting the reporter pays him
a sum of Rs 10,000 as an advance for asking more questions on NISMA’s behalf
during the coming session of Parliament. Chandel even takes out an empty
envelope to pack the money in. The COBRAPOST team concludes the meeting by
discussing various ways of creating a lobby in the Parliament to further
NISMA’s interests. Chandel promises to involve one or two MPs from the
Samajwadi Party as well as MPs from other parties: “Samajwadi Party ke ek do
logon ko involve karenge… aur dalon ke logon ko bhi involve karenge (I will
involve two members from the Samajwadi Party and also members from other
political parties).”
On May 4, we meet Lal Chandra of
the BSP. We meet middleman Gupta for the first time at Lal Chandra’s residence,
where he’s expecting us. Gupta instructs the COBRA POST team on the line to be
taken while meeting the MP. “Ki hum logon ki taraf se ek chhota amount rakh
ke ja rahe hain… phir uske baad se jab milenge, to aapka sahyog hota rahe, hum
aapka bhi sahyog karte rahein. Shesh hum baat karenge baith ke aage kya karna
hai kya nahin (This is a small amount from us… When we meet you later you
assist us. We will also keep helping you. The rest we will sit down together
and discuss).”
In this meeting a question on the misuse of the Foreign Contributions Regulation Act (FCRA) is read out to the MP. He is also given a sum of Rs 25,000 in a transparent polythene envelope, which is placed on the table in front of him. Lal Chandra acknowledges it. A little while later, an unidentified guest of the MP, sitting next to Lal Chandra, picks up the envelope containing the cash and takes it to the MP’s bedroom. After the meeting, the reporter comes out of the house only to find Gupta waiting for his commission.
While he demands Rs 10,000 from the reporter, she only pays him Rs 5,000, promising the balance after the questions are tabled in the Parliament. However, the question given to Lal Chandra for tabling in the monsoon session fails to get selected.
After the May 4 meeting it took
the COBRAPOST team nearly six months to contact the MP from Robertsganj in
Uttar Pradesh again. He meets the team on November 9 and pockets another Rs
10,000 as an advance for putting three more questions in the winter session. In
this meeting, also attended by Gupta, Lal Chandra assures us that one of the
three questions submitted will be selected in the balloting process. Says Lal
Chandra: “Usme ek question ayega. Chahe jo aa jaye ek question (One
question will come, whichever one comes).”After the meeting an unhappy Gupta,
who had been demanding more money as commission, accepts Rs 5,000, even though
he was expecting Rs 50,000. One of the questions related to SSIs export to
SAARC countries has already been tabled in the winter session.
While so far the COBRAPOST team
had only interacted with members of the Lok Sabha, Lodha was the lone member
from the Rajya Sabha. Though a resident of Bulandshahar in Uttar Pradesh, he
was nominated to the upper house by the BJP from Orissa. It was middleman
Harish who took us to Lodha on May 17.
After a brief introduction, the
reporter gets down to business, explaining the questions NISMA wants asked in
the Indian Parliament. She hands over the question to the MP and discusses with
him the format most suitable for asking the question concerned. Lodha goes over
the question diligently, one of the few MPs to do so.
Lodha assures the reporter that
he will reframe the question and have it submitted in the Parliament’s monsoon
session. One of the questions given to Lodha was on the Target Plus scheme for
SSIs. After reading this question the MP tells Harish to get him more
information on the scheme. When the meeting is over, the reporter gives Harish
Rs 25,000 to be handed over to the MP. She also gives Harish another Rs 5,000
as his commission.
In our next meeting with Lodha on
August 22, he informs us that one of the questions that he had submitted on
NISMA’s behalf had come in the unstarred list of questions. The question that
was tabled was on the Target Plus scheme. In this meeting although the reporter
asks the MP whether he had received a packet from Harish. The MP replies in the
affirmative.
For the fourth meeting with Lodha
we visit the MP’s Bulandshahar residence on October 30. She reads out three
questions which the MP had submitted and were tabled in the Rajya Sabha on
NISMA’s behalf and informs him that the questions were rewritten significantly
from the original that were given to him. The reporter again enquires whether
Harish had paid him Rs 25,000, which was given to him after the first meeting
on May 17. The MP informs that he got no such money from Harish. Says Lodha,
“No, no, no, not a single penny.”
The reporter hands him Rs 5,000,
thereafter, promising to deliver the rest in Delhi. Lodha accepts.
On November 9, there’s another
meeting with Lodha, at his Delhi residence, where he accepts another Rs 5,000
for putting in more questions in the Rajya Sabha. When the conversation steers
to Harish not giving Rs 25,000, Lodha says: “..de bhi jata hazar, paanch sau
rupya staff ko de dete (Had he handed over the money I would have given my
staff 500-1000 ruppees).” Lodha also says that he will have to sit down and
have a talk with Harish. The discomfiture of Lodha is not at the fact that
money was paid at all but that it wasn’t handed over to him.
Interestingly, even Lodha’s
personal secretary Vinay Sharma is present at this meeting and he expresses
“outrage” at Harish’s conduct. Says Sharma, in an apparent reference to him: “…To
is tarah ka business shuroo ho gaya questions ka to kaise kaam chalega (If
this kind of business starts with respect to questions then how will work go
on)?”
It was, perhaps, unknown to
Sharma that his boss Lodha had already pocketed Rs 5,000 from NISMA and, in a
short while, in the ongoing meeting, would pocket another Rs 5,000. Lodha also
comments that “staff bahut ganda ho gaya hai BJP office ka (The BJP
office staff has become very corrupt)” and Sharma, in spite of all his
posturing, starts angling to become a middleman for NISMA. To savour a sample
from Sharma: “Questions to hum dus MP-iyon se lagwa dein, hamare paas to sab
ke rakhe rahte hain (I can put in your questions through 10 MPs. I have all
their forms lying with me).”
Incidentally, Harish too tells
the reporter in a meeting that Lodha has told him to hand over the Rs 25,000
meant for him when he has the cash. On December 10, Lodha tells the reporter in
a telephonic conversation that Harish had handed over Rs 5,000 of the Rs 25,000
meant for him, promising to give the remaining Rs 20,000 soon.
In the segment below are listed
the case studies of MPs who took money from the COBRAPOST team for asking
questions in the Parliament and who confirmed to the team that NISMA’s
questions had been submitted but whose questions, till the time of writing of
the story, didn’t make it through the balloting process.
Our encounter on April 26 with a Lok Sabha member was quite revealing. Raja Ram Pal, the BSP MP from Bilhaur in Uttar Pradesh, was dismissive of the money offered to him for asking questions on Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) in the banking sector, though he readily accepted it. “Arre twenty five se kya hoga (What will happen with twenty-five thousand)?” And this was just his first meeting with the COBRAPOST team. To ensure that the questions he submits in Parliament get selected he gets a certain question paraphrased in three or four different ways and has other MPs put them in so, at least, one of those versions gets selected. Says Ram Pal: “Taaki wo select ho jaaye har haal mein (So that the question is selected under any circumstances).” When the reporter said at one place that whatever is done should serve public interest, Ram Pal threw another gem: “Public interest ke liye hi paida hue hain (I have taken birth only to take care of public interest).” Ravinder, his personal secretary, is a step ahead in suggesting a regular pay-off for the legislator, while reminding us of not forgetting his cut: “Tabhi to aap ke liye ladega, pachas hajar monthly dijiye, hum log ke liye bhi (Pay him fifty thousand a month only then will he fight for you, and don’t forget me).”
In yet another meeting on August
18, Ram Pal quotes a price of Rs 40,000 for his services: “...nahin to
pachaas, nahin to chalees do (if you cannot pay me fifty thousand then at
least pay me forty)”. That too in cash. Says Ram Pal: “Ab aapki ladai
agar ladein, kisi small industry wala *** kisi chhote vakil ko bhi to… (If
I fight your fight, then, any small scale industrialist, even if he hires a
small time lawyer…).” However, the question given by the reporter to be
submitted in Parliament, in the first meeting, doesn’t pass through the
balloting process. He has no compunction in putting that down to the error of
the same set of questions being submitted by himself and a middleman called
Dinesh, who Ram Pal alleges, submitted the question by forging his signatures.
When the conversation turns to
moving a petition for NISMA in Parliament signed by various MPs, Ram Pal asks
for Rs 25,000 per MP and says that a minimum of 11 MPs would be needed for it.
By imputation: cost of moving a petition signed by 11 MPs: Rs 2.25 lakh. Asked
if Rs 5,000 was enough to get an MP sign on a petition, Ram Pal says: “Koi
MP dus paanch hajar wala kaam karta hai kya? Do Chaar paanch hajaar to uska per
day expenses hai (Would any MP do a work for Rs 5000-10,000 when his daily
expenses come to around Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,000).” In a telephone
conversation later, when it was suggested by the reporter if he could be paid
50 per cent advance for the petition and the rest after the job was
accomplished, Ram Pal throws an immortal line. He says: “Arre ab aisa
tumhara rahega…sasta roye baar-baar, mehnga roye ek baar (Now, if you
behave like this let me tell you that if you throw little money you will cry
again and again, but if you throw big money you will cry only once).”
At another meeting the MP accepts
a sum of Rs 10,000 through his secretary Ravinder as an advance for putting in
two more questions regarding the pending SME (Small and Medium Enterprises)
bill and India’s relationship with the SAARC countries. The remaining balance
of Rs 15,000 is promised by the reporter once the questions are submitted. The
meeting is also used to confirm once again that Ram Pal had accepted Rs 25,000
in the first meeting.
On November 10, Ram Pal meets
Navratan Malhotra, the imaginary NISMA executive director at a Hotel Park
suite, on Parliament Street, where he promises to submit as many questions in
the Lok Sabha as NISMA wanted throughout the year for a fee of Rs 40,000 per
month. The sum is assured to him part in cash and part in cheque in someone
else’s name after, of course, TDS. Ram Pal also promises to raise issues at
NISMA’s behest in zero hour, through Parliament Rules 377 and 193 and also
putting in questions that could embarrass the “enemies” of NISMA. Says he: “Ye
to chhote-mote kaam hain (These are small jobs).” He also assures
that in the coming days Uttar Pradesh would have a BSP government and NISMA
could then tap on him.
Which takes us straight to the
interesting interludes with BJP MP Pradeep Gandhi of Rajnandgaon, Chhattisgarh.
While we meet Gandhi on May 4, the middleman who takes us there is Mohan Mani,
whom the team had met a day earlier at his residence at the Constitutional Club
complex, off Parliament Street. At the first meeting of the COBRAPOST team with
Gandhi, the MP tells the reporter the best method of submitting questions in
the Parliament is not through one MP but many MPs. Says Gandhi: “Ek question
ko dus bees saansad lagate hain…kisi ka number fansta hai, kisi ka nahi fansta
hai (One question is submitted by 10-20 MPs…some get their questions
selected).” He also informs that NISMA’s question can only come in the next
(monsoon) session of Parliament. The question given to Gandhi is about the
status of the SEBI inquiry into the stock market scam of 2004. Gandhi is paid
Rs 25,000 for his upcoming efforts of submitting questions in the Parliament on
NISMA’s behalf. The reporter asks the MP to count his share of money. “Ek
baar aap dekh lijiye…check..ye bahut zaroori hai..you check it (take a look
once, it is important that you checked it),” she tells the MP. To this Gandhi
replies: “Dekh lena to hai hi hai (I have to see it anyway).” The
reporter telephones Gandhi in July to find out whether he has submitted the
question given to him. The MP replies that he has done so. In fact, he wants
NISMA to give him more questions so that they too could be submitted.
In the team’s next meeting on
August 16, Gandhi informs the reporter that although he had submitted NISMA’s
question, it was not selected in the Parliament’s balloting system. Says he: “Lagaye
the fansaa to nahin…question ka badaa ye rehta hai (I had submitted the
questions but they were not selected. There is this uncertainty about the
questions…).” The MP reiterates that one question should be submitted through
many MPs so that there is greater chance of the question being selected. He
also tells us to give him more questions. In this meeting, Gandhi tells the
reporter that Mohan had told him that NISMA would pay him a monthly sum of Rs
25,000 for this service. Says Gandhi: “Jaise wo aya tha Mohan, usne kaha ki
har mahine ka pachchees hajar rupya aa jaayega (That Mohan came to tell me
that I shall get Rs 25,000 every month).”
The reporter meets Gandhi again
on October 5. After discussing with him whether he could help NISMA table a
petition on the problems of the SSIs in the Parliament the MP is paid Rs 10,000
as an advance for putting in more questions in the winter session. He’s also
given some researched matter on SSIs to enable him to make some questions of
his own.
On November 8, Malhotra, meets
Gandhi for the first time along with the reporter. Gandhi assures the NISMA
that he would garner the support of up to 100 MPs to lobby for its petition on
SSIs in the Parliament and would also establish contact with the chairman of
the Petition Committee. When Malhotra offers the MP Rs 25,000 per month for
submitting questions in the Parliament, Gandhi asks him to increase this amount
to Rs 50,000. Says Gandhi: “To main ye sochta hoon ki isko agar apan fifty
karte hain (I think you should raise the amount to fifty thousand).” The
reason: Gandhi wants to recruit staff, preferably retired officers,
professionally qualified with SSI background, who would work from a room in his
residence.
The Rajnandgaon legislator also
agrees to accept half the Rs 6 lakh due annually by cheque though in someone
else’s name, and the rest, Rs 3 lakh, in cash. The NISMA representatives also
pay Rs 10,000 to Gandhi as an advance for putting in questions in the winter
session. They also promise the MP a six month advance, half by cash and the
rest by cheque.
In the same meeting Gandhi
details his budgetary requirements for organizing a petition helping NISMA’s
cause. Asks Gandhi: “Yeh yachika ke liye kissi se baat karta hoon. Maan lo
agar 10 tak ka apan karte ho to baat kar loon kisi se (I will talk to
someone about this petition. Can I talk to someone with a budget of Rs 10 lakh
in mind)?” NISMA’s fictitious executive director, Malhotra, of course, agrees
to it but asks him to restrict the budget to between Rs 5-8 lakh.
After the meeting is over both
the NISMA representatives leave Gandhi’s residence, opposite Vigyan Bhavan.
However, after about half an hour the reporter rushes back to meet Gandhi
again. In this brief interaction with the MP, the reporter pays Gandhi another
sum of Rs 5,000. She also confirms with the MP about Rs 20,000 paid to him in
previous two meetings, the one on October 5 and the one earlier in the evening.
Gandhi also talks to a certain Golu on phone to get his name right for making
him the beneficiary of the cheque amount due from the NISMA.
The next morning on November 9, however, the COBRAPOST team receives a telephone call from Gandhi seeking an urgent meeting with the NISMA representatives. What leads him to be suspicious of the team is detailed later in the story. The MP at one stage even searches both Malhotra and Namita’s bags. Says he: “Koi baat cheet tape ho jaati hai (Some talks can be taped).” Then he also asks, “Kuch ho to...Dekh loon. Dikha do. Kya dikkat hai (Maybe there is something… let me check it. Show me. What is the problem)?”
A brief excerpt from the particular meeting:
Pradeep Gandhi: Maine kahaa bhai isme kahin
tape to nahi ho gaya. (Tell me if it hasn't cought it all on tape.)
Reporter I: Arre sir. Tape ho rahaa hota to
abhi nikal rahaa hota main to udhar jab nikal raha tha... (What sir.
Had it been taped, I would have already left)
Gandhi: Nahin...(No no.)
Reporter I: Haa.(Yes)
Gandhi: ***** Kya hai main isliye shanka kar raha tha...(Actually I had
some doubt because...)
Reporter I: Arre nahin sir. Yeh sab...(No,
not at all sir. All this....)
Reporter II: Theek hai sir? (Okay sir).
Gandhi: Nahin. Kuch ho to...Dekh loon. Dikha do. Kya dikkat hai?(No.
Maybe there is something...Let me check it? What is the problem?)
Reporter I: Ek baar… Dikha do sir ko (Okay, show it to sir
once).
Of course, he never finds anything and the cameras are on even while the search is going on. But, even in this meeting the MP accepts Rs 5,000, which the team offers apparently to distract him.
Fog of Suspicion
Suspicion was something that kept
erupting time and again during the course of Operation Duryodhana. One very
serious bout of doubt involved Chotiwala. In May, a few days after having
accepted Rs 1 lakh from NISMA, Chotiwala insists on meeting Suhasini urgently
and comes to the lobby of Hotel Ashoka along with a gentleman by the name of
Rajesh, a friend of middleman Chandrabhan Gupta. He expresses doubts about
NISMA’s activities saying maybe its representative was from some media house.
In Chotiwala’s words: “To, waise wo, aapki activities par hi doubt ho raha
hai (We are having doubts about your activities).” Chotiwala claims a crime
branch official has tipped him off. Probing and intimidating in turn, at one
point Chotiwala tells her being a lady it wouldn’t be nice if somebody searched
her. At this point the reporter totally takes off and starts shooting her mouth
off. A brief sample: “Talashi ki aisi ki taisi, hum seedha Home Ministry
pahunch jayenge, baat kya kar rahe hain aap (Search, my foot, I will go
straight to the Home Ministry, what are you talking?).” And, a little while
later: “I will straight away go to the Home Ministry. If, at any point of time
anyone challenges my credibility, or tries to lay a hand, ki bhaiyya lady
hai tumko (that she’s a lady) I will straight away go to the Home Minister.
Baat kya kar rahen hain aap (What are you talking?).”
So a combination of amateur bluster and self-assurance of the reporter saves a potentially derailing moment for Operation Duryodhana even while she was grilled by Chotiwala for nearly half an hour. And it wasn’t just one incident. Middleman Chandrabhan Gupta also develops suspicion and springs his friend Rajesh onto her to interrogate and suss her out at his roof top room in North Avenue. She passes that as well with flying colours. A lot of this turbulence was generated by middleman Dinesh. After coming to know that the middlemen he had sent the COBRAPOST team to were now bypassing him and introducing them to other MPs without his knowledge, Dinesh started spreading rumours that the NISMA outfit was in reality a media team, in an attempt to scare them off us. But with his tale being too close to the truth it was a miracle that the team was able to just talk its way out of the sceptical fog.
And although we faced suspicion
from many quarters a lot of it was just remarks from MPs and middlemen about
how the media was so omnipotent, and also simple, direct and harmless queries
about whether they were being taped. As if, if we were (which we indeed were),
we would simply roll over and admit to the fact. I personally think, the
spectacle of a homely woman going around splurging cash on demand, in North
Avenue, was something they were not used to. And they weren’t quite equipped to
react to that novelty. If it was a guy I think the suspicions would have
metamorphosed into a more aggressive scrutiny of the credentials of NISMA and
its alleged representatives and most certainly some thorough physical searches
at inopportune moments.
When finally BJP MP Pradeep
Gandhi did get suspicious it was more a result of foolishness on our part, more
particularly mine. While we had portrayed NISMA as a bonafide organization
functioning out of Moradabad, when Gandhi asked me, that is NISMA’s Malhotra,
who the sitting Lok Sabha MP from Moradabad was, I was stumped by a mile and
gave a rather pathetic and convoluted explanation of how I was generally at
Moradabad only for a fortnight or so in a whole year spending the rest abroad
and which didn’t quite allow me to keep abreast with the identities of local
luminaries. Then there was the issue of my visiting card which he asked for and
which I didn’t give purposefully because a fake address invariably complicates
matters.
Here I cooked up the rather not
so convincing a story of how there had been several attempts on my life and as
a result my movements were so secretive that giving out personal phone numbers
was unthinkable for security reasons. Where people were too insistent we would
dish out something. Like in Chotiwala’s case part of his way of checking out
our bonafide was to ask for us to submit all our small scale industry
grievances on NISMA’s letterhead.
But in my defence I have to say
that Operation Duryodhana was already more or less complete so to speak when
“Malhotra’s” meeting with Gandhi took place and there was a bit of casualness
and over-confidence in the COBRAPOST team which could infect anybody that could
get a question like “Whether the Railway Ministry has placed any order for
purchase of the Yossarian Electro Diesel engine from Germany?” enter the
question-balloting system of the Indian Parliament. Also, one would have
thought that the media trend that started post-Operation West End would make
politicians and their assorted middlemen more careful but an opportunity for
profit has its way of blinding people. And, in a way, our cover cracked only
because the COBRAPOST team let it. But, Gandhi did manage to unearth our real
identities and nosed around our residences and called the reporter just to be
able to sit down and discuss the matter with us and end it.
The third parliamentarian that
middleman Gupta leads us to is BJP MP ‘Baba Saheb’ Chandra Pratap Singh from
Madhya Pradesh’s Sidhi constituency. Gupta arranges the meeting on May 11 at
Singh’s 33 North Avenue residence. In the first meeting the reporter acquaints
him with the question on the impact of VAT on the pharmaceutical industry that
NISMA wanted to be submitted in the Parliament. The MP promises full
cooperation and accepts Rs 25,000 for the job.
Our next meeting with Chandra
Pratap Singh takes place three months later on August 16. In this meeting Singh
is a little red-faced because the questions he submitted in the Lok Sabha on
behalf of NISMA didn’t figure in either the starred or unstarred list of
selected questions. The MP gives a lengthy explanation about the procedure for
selecting questions: how the process is like a lottery and that once the MP
submits his questions all he can do is keep his fingers crossed and hope that
the question pops up after the balloting process. Says C.P. Singh: “Jab tak
ki hamara ek member baithta hai… uske saamne lottery nikali jaati hai… wo
lottery nikal gaya to wo aa jaata hai (We have a member sitting there. It
is in front of him that lottery takes place. A question is taken up only if it
is selected in the lottery).”
The MP also confirms that Rs 25,000 was paid to him during the first meeting and undertakes to put in more questions in the Lok Sabha in the next session. In the third meeting, the MP accepts yet another Rs 10,000 and signs five questions the reporter brings pre-formatted to him. He also says, towards the end of the meeting, that if the answers to the questions don’t come in the winter session he will have the questions re-submitted in the next session. Amongst the questions that he signs for us, one would be of particular interest to the Indian blogging community.