Ratan Tata in Time Magazine fills FB and Twitter Timeline as Income Tax submitted Radia Transcripts in SC: What a Timing?
When it was expected that the Facebook and Twitter Timelines will be full of the case of “Right To Privacy” filed by Ratan Tata, the fruits of which were set to ripen on January the 8th; 8 being a number associated with Saturn – the lord of Justice as per Vedic astrology – a smart move by the successor of Niira Radia’s Vaishnavi has perfectly Time-d a rehash of Time interview. The Twitter timelines, incidentally are full of Ratan Tata quotes tagged with “Corruption in India is masked by High Rate of Growth” and “Business environment biggest challenge for Mistry”.
Strangely, two days after the Time issue hit the stands, Indian cousin of Reuters – Press Trust of India (PTI) in its best judgment decided to re-hash excerpts of Ratan Tata’s interview in the Time magazine. The re-hashed story being flashed by PTI now being tweeted recklessly running down the more important happening at the Supreme Court, in a case filed by Ratan Tata, which received the transcripts of 5800 conversations of corporate lobbyist Niira Radia intercepted by Income Tax authorities over a period of 180 days. 5800 conversations in 180 days, approximately 32 conversations per day.
If the sneak preview of the trailer heard on http://www.outlookindia.com in The Open, the conversations did point at “the challenges of business environment that Tata Group was facing”, which perhaps will be even more challenging for new Tata Chairman Cyrus Mistry in absence of Ratan Tata and Niira Radia. And some of the conversations whose recordings continue to be on Outlook website did “unmask the Corruption that came with the High Rate of Growth” and at the same time indicated a “fair amount of Crony Capitalism”.
On specific question regarding Tata’s association with lobbyist Niira Radia, Ratan Tata did agree that the calls were intercepted, and opined “they were absolutely innocuous”. While the real stock of raw footage is yet to be viewed by the Supreme Court, the one’s which the general public like us were on “Ministerial berth allocations in UPA II”, “high profile litigation strategies around national resources” and “interests in proposed announcements impact on competitors stock prices” and “sending political parties after competition”. What we heard doesn’t sound like innocuous, but if a man of Ratan Tata’s stature feels so then PTI too did view these conversations as absolutely innocuous.
It would be important to note Ratan Tatas view on “corruption being a concern to many”, a concern that may soon end as the Supreme Court peruses through the Radia Tape transcripts before deciding the potentially Billion Dollar question of whether to give or not to give the transcripts to CBI for a closer scrutiny on criminal aspects, if emerging in the conversations Niira had with many high and mighty.
What a Time-ing to Time the Time Interview flagging concerns on crony capitalism, as Supreme Court bench moves towards a crucial decision in the next two weeks…
The link to the PTI rehash tagged in this Economic Times website link : http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-company/corporate-trends/toughening-biz-environment-major-challenge-says-ratan-tata/articleshow/17939308.cms
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