Tehelka is an Indian weekly magazine under the editorship of Tarun Tejpal. A week (also called sennight or sevennight) is a unit of Time longer than a Day and shorter than a Month. Magazines, periodicals or serials are Publications generally published on a regular schedule containing a variety of articles, generally The publication started life in 2000 as a news website, Tehelka. com.
It was forced to close down temporarily due to hostile government action following Operation West End, a major expose on corruption in defense procurements. In 2003, it was relaunched as a weekly newspaper. In 2007, it once again underwent a transformation, and shifted to a regular magazine format. In September 2007, Tehelka came up with a Hindi news based web portal "Tehelka Hindi". Just after a month in October 2007, it once again captured widespread attention for an elaborate sting operation that captured on hidden camera several perpetrators of the 2002 Gujarat riots admitting to horrendous crimes, and revealing the riots to be part of a well-planned conspiracy that had state sanction. The 2002 Gujarat violence describes a series of communal Riots between the communities of Hindus and Muslims that took place in the Indian
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Operation West End
Operation West End was a sting operation aimed at uncovering the corruption underlying India's large defence contracts. In law enforcement a sting operation is a Deceptive operation designed to catch a person committing a crime The original investigative piece by Tehelka in 2001 targeted several members of the then ruling coalition, the National Democratic Alliance, headed by Bharatiya Janata Party's Atal Behari Vajpayee. The National Democratic Alliance ( NDA) is a coalition of political parties in India. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP (भारतीय जनता पार्टी, Translation: Indian People's Party) founded in 1980 is a major Political Atal Bihari Vajpayee (अटल बिहारी वाजपेयी əʈəl bɪhaːɾiː ʋaːdʒpeiː (born December 25 1924 The eleventh Prime Minister of India. It showed several political figures, as well as army top brass, colluding to take bribes that approached 4% of orders totalling hundreds of crores in order to approve defense contracts. A crore is a unit in the Indian numbering system and was formerly a unit in the Persian numbering system still widely used in Bangladesh, India, Maldives
The minister in charge of Defence, George Fernandes of the Samata Party, resigned after the tapes were made public, but he was reinstated later. National security is the entire scope of measures undertaken by the Governments of Nation-states in providing assurance of national Sovereignty George Fernandes (born June 3 1930 is a trade unionist agriculturist political activist journalist and currently a member of the 14th Lok Sabha of India. The Samata Party is a Political party in India. It was formed as an offshoot of the Janata Dal in 1994 by Nitish Kumar and George Fernandes Part of the tapes show the treasurer of his party talking about accepting bribes of 1 crore or more. However, subsequent investigation revealed that there was no evidence linking Fernandes to the impropriety in the deals. Tehelka was accused of fabricating allegations and carrying out a biased and motivated campaign carried out at the behest of the political foes of George Fernandes. [1]
One source of corruption arises because arms dealers often hire senior armed forces personnel. For example, Admiral S. M. Nanda, ex-Chief of Naval Staff, is now associated with the arms mediating firm Crown Corporation, headed by his son, ex-Naval officer Lt-Cmdr Suresh Nanda. S M Nanda was the Chief of Naval Staff of the Indian Navy from February 28 1970 until February 28 1973 Lt-Cmdr Suresh Nanda is an Indian arms dealer and head of the firm Crown Corporation Clearly such people have access to internal processes at the Indian Ministry of Defence. The Ministry of Defence (MoD is a Government of India ministry charged with the responsibility of internal and external security of the Republic of India
In the Tehelka tapes, the reporter (usually Aniruddha Bahal) is posing as a representative of the fictitious large arms supplier West End. Aniruddha Bahal is the founder and editor-in-chief of Cobrapost
Armoured Recovery Vehicles
At one point, the Samata Party national treasurer RK Jain is trying to convince Tehelka about his prowess in swinging deals. The Samata Party is a Political party in India. It was formed as an offshoot of the Janata Dal in 1994 by Nitish Kumar and George Fernandes He mentions how in the first defence deal that he was involved in as the party treasurer, Suresh Nanda of Crown Corporation had paid Samata Party Rs 1 crore to swing the Rs 250-crore (USD 60 million) order for Armoured Recovery Vehicles (ARV) in favour of a Slovakian company. Lt-Cmdr Suresh Nanda is an Indian arms dealer and head of the firm Crown Corporation Slovakia (long form Slovak Republic; Slovak:, long form, is a Landlocked country in Central Europe with a population of over five million
- Samata Party treasurer R. K. Jain: "Nanda approached me. Czechoslovakia's price was the lowest, second Slovakian, third was the Poland. "
- Tehelka: "Haan, Haan. "
- R. K. Jain: "He said, 'I will give you one crore rupees in advance'. "
- Tehelka: "Okay. "
- R. K. Jain: "You get disapproved the last one. Czechoslovakia because they are so lower that we cannot match their price. "
- Tehelka: "Okay. "
- R. K. Jain: "If you can push him out. Delegation is going on to the. . . delegation has been ordered to go to Czechoslovakia. Stop this delegation, and technically reject this company. Here are the documents. "
- Tehelka: "Hmm. "
- R. K. Jain: "By which it's proved that this company is closed for the last two years. They will start only after getting this order. "
- Tehelka: "Yeah, yeah. "
- R. K. Jain: "I will give one crore rupees. And I will give you. . . if they are technically disapproved, then you are my agent. "
- Tehelka: "Yeah. "
- R. K. Jain: "For this particular. . . perks. . . and I will give you so much of commission. "
- Tehelka: "Okay. "
- R. K. Jain: "I said, 'Fine. ' He gave me the correspondence. I took the correspondence to George. "
- (the then Defence minister George Fernandes was from Samata Party)
- Tehelka: "Hmm. George Fernandes (born June 3 1930 is a trade unionist agriculturist political activist journalist and currently a member of the 14th Lok Sabha of India. "
- R. K. Jain: "And he said, 'All right, I'll reject it. ' He is a very intelligent man. ". . .
- Tehelka: Okay, it is manipulated.
- R. K. Jain: He wrote straight away on the file himself. He never goes and orders to a Joint Secretary. He wrote it himself, and sent the file back. Nanda gave me one crore rupees. He called me, "Yes, Mr. Jain, the file has come down. Like you know George…"
- Tehelka: Yeah, yeah. [2]
Barak Missile System
At another point Jain also says that he had received another Rs 1 crore for the Samata Party from Suresh Nanda to help swing the contract for an air-to-air and surface-to-surface missile system for the Indian Navy. The Barak Missile Scandal is a case of defence corruption relating to the purchase of Barak Missile Systems by India from Israel. The Indian Navy is the naval branch of the armed forces of India. Nanda was an agent for the Israel Aircraft Industries who make the Barak missile. Israel Aerospace Industries ( Hebrew: התעשייה האווירית לישראל ha-ta`aSiyyâh ha-'awîrît lë-yiSrâ'êl) or IAI (תע"א ta`a' Barak (the Hebrew word for Lightning) is an Israeli Surface-to-air missile designed to be used as a point-defense missile on warships defending against [3]
These tapes were the result of a clandestine sting operation and are not admissible as evidence in court. In law enforcement a sting operation is a Deceptive operation designed to catch a person committing a crime However, the videos (and the media furore following it) resulted in the Central Bureau of Investigation conducting its own investigation, based on which R. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI is India 's premier investigating agency responsible for a wide variety of Criminal and National security matters K. Jain was arrested in February 2006. [4]
The Truth: Gujarat 2002
In October 2007, Tehelka published the findings of an elaborate, 6-month long investigation into the 2002 Gujarat riots that followed the burning of a passenger train carrying Hindu pilgrims. The Truth Gujarat 2002 was an extensive report on the 2002 Gujarat violence published by the Tehelka magazine in its November 7 2007 issue The 2002 Gujarat violence describes a series of communal Riots between the communities of Hindus and Muslims that took place in the Indian Dubbed Operation Kalank, the sting claimed to show that the riots were not a spontaneous Hindu backlash in response to the Godhra train burning incident, but an organised pogrom carried out in full knowledge and sanction of Gujarat state government. See also Godhra train burning WikipediaWikiProject Indian cities for details --> Godhra is a town and the originally the name came from "Gou" Posing as a fanatical student who was researching a book to propagate Hindutva, Tehelka reporter Ashish Khetan caught nearly two dozen people belonging to the sangh parivar boasting about their misdeeds on hidden camera. For Veer Savarkar's book see Hindutva (book. Hindutva (Devanagari हिन्दुत्व "Hinduness" a word coined by Vinayak The sting also netted top government officials, including the Gujarat State Counsel inadvertently revealing on camera the extent of the state's role in the pogrom. The veracity of the sting operation is disputed.
References
- ^ Tehelka report: Fernandes cleared.
- ^ Tehelka Tapes (transcript). Tehelka. com. Retrieved on 2006-08-17. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Events 986 - A Byzantine army was destroyed in the pass of Trajan's Gate by the Bulgarians under the Comitopuli
- ^ Srivastava, Mihir. Finally, West End Lands Jain In Jail. Tehelka. Retrieved on 2006-08-16. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Events 1384 - The Hongwu Emperor of Ming China, Emperor Dong hears a case of a couple who tore paper money bills while fighting
- ^ PTI. "R K Jain arrested five years after Tehelka expose", Outlook, 2006-02-07. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Events 457 - Leo I becomes emperor of the Byzantine Empire. 1074 - Battle of Montesarchio in which the Prince Retrieved on 2006-08-16. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Events 1384 - The Hongwu Emperor of Ming China, Emperor Dong hears a case of a couple who tore paper money bills while fighting
External references
- www.tehelka.com
- www.tehelkahindi.com
- [1] Story of the birth, death and re-birth of 'Tehelka'.
- [2]The Truth: Gujarat 2002
- [3] Gujarat 2002: Spy cam videos
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