(Phone rings)
Tarun Das: Hi. Niira Radia: Good morning, how are you?
Tarun Das: Are you in your favourite Bombay? Niira Radia: No, no, I'm in Delhi... Supreme Court matter.. I came back over the weekend.
Tarun Das: Okay, good. Niira Radia: Yeah yeah I'm here, I'm here. I spoke to Ratan last night about this whole being invited that Jadhav had met him.. I told Ratan I said don't do it. Seriously yeah yeah he shouldn't do it because they want him to ratify all the deals that they have done na..
Tarun Das: He shouldn't do it. I was surprised to see this. Niira Radia: No no, they've asked him .. Jadhav approached him and Patel.. in fact if I were you I would also send him a note. You should because Tarun, they want him to ratify all the...
Niira Radia: There have been huge kickbacks in Air India you know what's been going on... yeah.. what they're donna do is, they're gonna bring him there, they're gonna try and make him ratify those deals. And make them look cleaner than everything.. he shouldn't do it. There's enough on his own plate.
Tarun Das: Has he already agreed? Niira Radia: No, he's not.
Niira Radia: I told him. I said what are you gonna do? He said Niira send me the note on what's been going on so then when I write, I'll write in substance but then I told him.. I said I'm gonna say no comment for now.
Niira Radia: And.. but Jojo called me yesterday from Bombay.. he said Niira this has happened.. is it true? And I said yeah.. he's got an invite but he hasn't accepted as yet. He's not gonna do it.
Niira Radia: In fact I really think I need to bring Sunil Arora in there. Tarun Das: You know when Ratan was chairman of Air India, appointed by Rajeev Gandhi, I was on his board.
Tarun Das: Which was so traumatic.. getting anything done.. and nothing has changed. In fact it has deteriorated. And you know Praful plays big games. So, he won't have a free hand. It's an advisory committee. It's just whitewash.
Niira Radia: It's a whitewash and they want him to do this only to...and why should...it's different if the Prime Minister would have invited Ratan. Tarun Das: Absolutely.
Tarun Das: And you know, it's like the Satyam Board. I'll give you the difference. Prime Minister personally called, personally: please come, please help, please solve. And I am with you, you are reporting to me. In my absence you're reporting to the acting Prime Minister Pranab Mukherjee. It's like that.
Tarun Das: It's not dealing with any Minister, we're not dealing with PC Gupta, at that time. Niira Radia: Hmm. Tarun Das: So I don't think this has.. this in fact what will happen is.. Praful will do a whitewash and show the Prime Minister.. you see I'm doing all the right things here.. there Ratan Tata, dream man for you. You have the highest respect for him. I have got him to do it.
Tarun Das: So many irregularities. Every picture wants Sunil Arora, get him back. I don't know who this Jadhav guy is. Niira Radia: They need to bring Sunil Arora but you know, Prime Minister has to take that move because Praful will never allow him to come in.
Niira Radia: They will never allow him. Praful will never... because he knows all the deals no. Tarun Das: I will talk to PM when he comes back from Europe.
Niira Radia: Yeah.. but Tarun, send a letter to Ratan haan. Tarun Das: Okay. Niira Radia: Tell him that this would be very wrong. You should tell him that the Prime Minister should have invited him. Not some MB of the airline you know.
Tarun Das: Praful Patel.. and this is all being you know... Prime Minister's office doesn't even know about it. You know what I mean? It's probably, you would read about it in the newspapers, or maybe a message has been sent to him you know saying that they're asking him and all that...and this is what Air India writes.
Tarun Das: And this will not.. Air India's problems are much deeper. By the way, Air India can be a great airline. It can be. Niira Radia: Ya absolutely. But you need to get rid of all these guys you know. You need to bring in people who really want to run it.
Tarun Das: Naresh wants to kill it, Vijay wants to kill it. Niira Radia: They want to strip assets.
Tarun Das: Praful is not really interested. Niira Radia: You know Tarun they have been selling bilaterals. You should see the deals they have been cutting. That airline's coming and telling us this.
Niira Radia: The ones that did not want to pay. They have made a fortune by selling all those bilaterals. Air India's got no value any longer. It's only got a 14,000 crore debt. I mean it's got no value any longer from that point of view. It really needs very dedicated group of people who really want to turn it around.
Tarun Das: I agree. I was really surprised to see Ratan's name on the front page you know. Niira Radia: Yeah.. but it's not.. I mean I have also told him and you should also write to him.
Tarun Das: I will write to this personal email id. Niira Radia: Yeah that's right, you should do that.
Niira Radia: This guy is not there in the afternoon Tarun. He has to go to Chandigarh. So he's saying he can do Friday. Tarun Das: Yeah sure, Friday is fine.
Niira Radia: Are you okay with Friday? Tarun Das: Yeah, Friday is fine. I'm here.
Niira Radia: I'll go ahead and confirm. If it is Friday then I'll probably come along with you. Tarun Das: if this thing works out, what will be the deal?
Niira Radia: The land? Tarun Das: Yeah.
Niira Radia: I'll work it out, you don't worry about it. I'll sort it out. You see no, what we can do. Maybe he can give it a massive concession. Rest we'll handle, you don't worry about it Tarun.
Niira Radia: It's my responsibility to get you 5 acres. Tarun Das: Okay. Niira Radia: I've taken it upon myself. Tarun Das: Now what is the issue with Pranoy? What is the background? What do you think?
Niira Radia: He finally called me and he said no I am sorry I wasn't able to.. you see I've been sending him SMSes and he's not been responding. And I know he's in a lot of financial issues and all that.
Tarun Das: I know that. Niira Radia: I know he met Mukesh last week and you know also.. and the thing is that I.. he needs to understand.. I think Pranoy needs to understand that we really, out of everyone.. he is one person we all have a lot of respect for.. especially you and I.. personally I have a lot of respect for him.
Niira Radia: So whether it is Ratan or.. he always goes to people through the wrong.. he goes through sale or he goes through somebody else. Of course he has gone through Kamath also but he is going through you which is good.. and you are asking him..
Niira Radia: So he needs to...I thought he - I was under the impression that he was a little upset with me because I didn't give him Ratan on a couple of occasions when he wanted him on air. But I can't do that. I can't send Ratan for awards which he doesn't want to receive you know.
Niira Radia: So Radhika and Pranoy and all were quite annoyed with me because I didn't do that. I tried to explain this to Pranoy, i said Pranoy do something else which is going to be special and I will promise you he'll be there.
Niira Radia: I always thought that he is a little irritated with me after that but I sent him another SMS yesterday saying 'Listen, you know I'm trying to reach you.. Manoj Modi is in town, I want you to meet him and talk to him and understand what's going on.'
Niira Radia: Then he replied back saying that 'Sorry I'm really caught up with the budget but yes please let's meet and all that.' But whenever you do meet him, maybe you can just let him know.. that I only have good words for him... I don't have..
Niira Radia: You're meeting Sunil today is it? Tarun Das: No it's got pushed back to tomorrow. He called last night. Sharad Pawar has called him at 10.45. So he said can we move it to tomorrow. Fine.. tomorrow.
Tarun Das: I'm here all this week, fairly easy. Niira Radia: I've got Manoj Modi this whole day today with all this Reliance stuff.
Tarun Das: Right, right. Niira Radia: Tomorrow I'm here.. tomorrow I should be there. Friday I'm here.. Friday I'll come with you to the land.
Niira Radia: When you meet Sunil... I'm in touch with him. I mean you can tell, Niira told me that you've met and he'll ask you about me.. you can tell him all the bad things. He will probably ask you what you think.
Tarun Das: Can you arrange a meeting between him and RNT? Niira Radia: I've given him a session yesterday on the phone. I said look, you are giving Vir Sanghvi an interview on Friday. I know Ratan's mind.
Niira Radia: Ratan will meet him but I have to set the stage. Now there's a larger issue of spectrum which you're fighting. Let Vir ask you the question about do you think all these natural resources should priced and you should say yes. Because now you are in favour of that.
Niira Radia: Then Vir can say that you had said that you know.. when Ratan Tata offered us a price you said you can give it to the Prime Minister's relief fund if he has so much money.
Niira Radia: And you should say that I should have not said that and I do believe that Ratan was right. Tarun Das: Hmm. Niira Radia: You know I said we'll come out not only looking magnanimous, Tarun Das: Hmm. Niira Radia: we'll come out looking credible. Tarun Das: Ya. Niira Radia: You'll kill two birds with one stone.
Niira Radia: And I can then take that CD to Ratan and say look he's even gone on air now. Because that's what Ratan needs. Then he will.. atleast we will have got 50% of it. I know, Ratan, you know, he is very cut up about that statement. So Sunil needs to correct that.
Niira Radia: I think he will come out looking very good doing it you know. Tarun: I'll tell him. Niira Radia: Yeah, so that can help him. And I can always ask Vir to ask that question of him. Yeah? (Tape ends)