Reply on Tehelka’s “true story” with factual information

Tehelka in their report Cash-for-Votes Scandal: A trap. And a cover-up has claimed that have brought to light “true story of one of the biggest scandals in recent Indian parliamentary history “

Over a period of next few days Media Watch will evaluate Tehelkas claim with some factual data.

At first glance, Tehelka story seems to be narration of the actual incident with some claims sprinkled in between. Following is the first para in which Tehelka made some claims

There were several inaccuracies in this cable that made it problematic. Nachiketa Kapur was not a formal aide of Satish Sharma but a Congress hanger-on who was sacked from service in the past by Congress leader Renuka Chowdhury for corruption. The RLD had three MPs at the time, not four. And the Lok Sabha records show that none of them voted in favour of the UPA government.

1. Nothing new Tehelka seems to be repeating the excuses made by congress that Nachiketa Kapur in not a formal aide of satish sharma.

FACTS: Note how the word formal is inserted before aide. Cable 162458: secret never claimed that Nachiketa Kapur was formal aide of Satish Sharma. They mentioned him as “Sharma's political aide Nachiketa Kapur” . The free dictionary defines aide as “An assistant or a helper” and by Tehelkas own admission “Nachiketa Kapur was a political hanger-on” a political helper (or aide) in other words.

2. Then Tehelka claims that he was sacked from service by Renuka Chowdhury  for corruption.

FACTS: Nachiketa Kapur was  OSD to Renuka Chowdhury while she held the Tourism portfolio in 2004, he was then promoted by her as her Personal Secretary when she moved to Women and Child Development. However in 2008, the Appointments Committee of Cabinet turned down a proposal to formalise his appointment as her Officer on Special Duty after the intelligence department gave an "adverse" report against him and remarked that he "should not be considered for any appointment of a sensitive nature." Not only Kapur's appointment was cancelled. it was done with retrospective effect from the date of recommendation as OSD. So it was not Renuka Chowdhury who cancelled his appointment, in fact she had given him promotion!

Curiously, It seems Tehelka forgot to mention that  another senior congress leader Suresh Kalmadi who headed IOA overlooked the recommendation of ACC and appointed Kapur as an office-bearer in the Commonwealth Games Organizing Committee. He was appointed deputy director general (DDG), protocol and media, in the CWG OC.   He was even part of OC delegation that visited London as part of the Queen’s Baton Relay (QBR) ceremonies. How all this is possible if a person was just sacked by a senior leader of same party for corruption – defies logic?

3. Lastly, Tehelka again uses the same argument which congress used that there were several inaccuracies in this cable - RLD had three MPs at the time, not four. And the Lok Sabha records show that none of them voted in favour of the UPA government.!

FACTS: The fact is the cable did not get its fact wrong. Vote count of RLD is mentioned at two places in the cable.

In the first place it cable writes

Behind the scenes, the Congress Party machine is working overtime. Sonia Gandhi reportedly plans to meet Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader Shibu Soren and Janata Dal Secular (JD-S) leader H.D. Deve Gowda. Retaining the support of JMM's five seats and the JD-S's three seats is reportedly vital to the UPA government's strategy. In exchange for retaining the support of the three votes of the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), the Congress Party has reportedly pledged its support to rename Lucknow's Amausi airport after Chaudhary Charan Singh, father of RLD leader Ajit Charan Singh, who may also get a cabinet seat.

So cable did get the facts on number of seats of RLD correct first time, please note this is a statement made by the author of report itself.

In the second place cable quotes Sharma's political aide Nachiketa Kapur (Its important to understand that here cable is actually repeating what nachiketa kapur said)

Sharma's political aide Nachiketa Kapur mentioned to an Embassy staff member in an aside on July 16 that Ajit Singh's RLD had been paid Rupees 10 crore (about $2.5 million) for each of their four MPs to support the government. Kapur mentioned that money was not an issue at all, but the crucial thing was to ensure that those who took the money would vote for the government. Kapur showed the Embassy employee two chests containing cash and said that around Rupees 50-60 crore (about $25 million) was lying around the house for use as pay-offs.

Would it not be possible that instead of cable getting it wrong it was Nachiketa Kapur who got his facts wrong or perhaps even deliberately exaggerating  to showoff that they have required numbers to win the vote of confidence? And in true ‘unbiased’ reporting style reported just repeated what was told to them!

4. Lastly on the issue of RLD members not voting.

FACTS: This risk is acknowledged and mentioned in the cable itself. The cable quotes

Kapur mentioned that money was not an issue at all, but the crucial thing was to ensure that those who took the money would vote for the government.

So even when Kapur was bribing he was aware of the risk that all the MP’s who took money may not vote in congress favour!