radiaSRT/srt/118 Jaideep Bose TOI Jul 07 2009 20 44 12.srt

1
00:00:06,879 --> 00:00:13,024
Phone Rings

2
00:00:13,024 --> 00:00:18,656
Jaideep Bose: Hello?
Niira Radia: Hi
Jaideep Bose: Hi.

3
00:00:18,656 --> 00:00:21,215
Niira Radia: He has got it. 
Jaideep Bose: Sorry?

4
00:00:21,215 --> 00:00:24,288
Niira Radia: He has.. between you and me.. 
Jaideep Bose: Okay.

5
00:00:24,288 --> 00:00:32,479
Niira Radia: Off the record (Laughs). He has received the request. 
Jaideep Bose: Okay.

6
00:00:32,479 --> 00:00:35,296
Niira Radia: Jadhav had met him.
jaideep Bose: Sorry?

7
00:00:35,296 --> 00:00:44,781
Niira Radia: Jadhav.. the MD? 
Jaideep Bose: Yeah, yeah.
Niira Radia: MD had met him. But he has not made up his mind whether he wants to do it. Too committed no?

8
00:00:44,781 --> 00:00:48,096
Jaideep Bose: Yeah I think it will be a bad job to do.

9
00:00:48,096 --> 00:00:52,912
Niira Radia: Huh?
Jaideep Bose: Yeah.

10
00:00:52,912 --> 00:00:57,963
Jaideep Bose: No it is.. because I don't know how much.. you know.. I don't know if anyone can you know..

11
00:00:57,963 --> 00:01:08,064
Jaideep Bose: I think it's too much..
Niira Radia: Between you and me.. I mean that's effective that I know. And you know that the whole intention of Praful Patel was to asset-strip the airline.

12
00:01:08,064 --> 00:01:13,695
Jaideep Bose: Yeah.
Niira Radia: And its not going to happen, because...
jaideep Bose: Sorry?

13
00:01:13,695 --> 00:01:25,810
Niira Radia: It's not going to happen now because the financial crisis has hit aviation in a big way. And you know they want someone like Mr Tata to... sort of take...

14
00:01:25,810 --> 00:01:33,970
Niira Radia: I don't know between you and me I don't think he's going to take it. He's told me.. I told him (inaudible) He said just don't quote me Niira, but he's not made up his mind...

15
00:01:33,970 --> 00:01:37,991
Jaideep Bose: Very honestly, in his place I wouldn't take it.

16
00:01:37,991 --> 00:01:43,532
Niira Radia: No. no, he is not at all in the mood to do it.

17
00:01:43,532 --> 00:01:48,711
Jaideep Bose: Because, Praful Patel will now getting heat, he's trying very hard to...

18
00:01:48,711 --> 00:01:52,096
Jaideep Bose: They have handed over the aviation business too.

19
00:01:52,096 --> 00:02:01,025
Niira Radia: He is destroyed. He's sold his bilaterals. $28 a seat to Emirates...

20
00:02:01,025 --> 00:02:04,104
Jaideep Bose: I've heard $3,500. How much have you heard?

21
00:02:04,104 --> 00:02:10,312
Niira Radia: No, no.. you know, whenever you do a bilateral.. you know how we kick back Sedan(?).. is that you pay per seat.

22
00:02:10,312 --> 00:02:14,343
Jaideep Bose: Yeah. I heard $3,500 per seat.

23
00:02:14,343 --> 00:02:19,677
Niira Radia: No. no. Actual weight is about $25 pear seat.

24
00:02:19,677 --> 00:02:28,703
Niira Radia: $7-$28 but that is aiming...with this guy in Delhi... he's one of his henchmen in Delhi who did that deal...
Jaideep Bose: Ramesh Nambiar.

25
00:02:28,703 --> 00:02:36,859
Niira Radia: Yeah and Deepak Talwar was involved in it.

26
00:02:36,859 --> 00:02:42,271
Niira Radia: And these guys have raked in about 3-4 hundred million dollars in bilaterals. 
Jaideep Bose: Hmm..

27
00:02:42,271 --> 00:02:50,826
Niira Radia: And that's only on Gulf sites....(inaudible)

28
00:02:50,826 --> 00:02:54,023
Jaideep Bose: You're breaking up, I can't hear you.

29
00:02:54,023 --> 00:03:01,607
Niira Radia: ...Singapore Airlines came to me and said they wanted huge amounts of money for bilaterals. And I refused to..

30
00:03:01,607 --> 00:03:04,007
Jaideep Bose: Who.. who came to you?

31
00:03:04,007 --> 00:03:20,671
Niira Radia: Singapore Airlines. They used to be my client before. So they used to do a lot of leasing of their aircraft in the African market. So he said.. they said that they want to do it. They didn't take any extra flights from them.

32
00:03:20,671 --> 00:03:34,751
Niira Radia: But they had a going way. So there was this tarrif card that was running in the ministry for five years. And I don't think Ratan's going to do it. I told him that you carry the story he said yeah there is no problem.

33
00:03:34,751 --> 00:03:42,953
Niira Radia: No comments from our side. But between you and me you can probably say that he is probably not going to take it.

34
00:03:42,953 --> 00:03:49,272
Jaideep Bose: Can I say people who know him don't believe he would take such an assignment?

35
00:03:50,367 --> 00:03:54,183
Niira Radia: Yeah, maybe you can say that. 
Jaideep: Huh?
Niira Radia: Yeah.

36
00:03:54,183 --> 00:04:00,919
Jaideep Bose: See, the thing is, he'll think twice before such an assignment.

37
00:04:00,919 --> 00:04:07,519
Niira Radia: You know I think he is pretty cut up about it. You could see them all get involved in this whole Boeing deal with this guy Sedan.

38
00:04:07,519 --> 00:04:26,951
Niira Radia: He doesn't know what he has to unravel.. so there have been huge amounts of kickbacks that have taken place.. and all these aircraft purchases and all that.. in no way Ratan's gonna try... you know they're gonna use him to try and clean up the mess that they have made.. and the Prime Minister is really going for them now.

39
00:04:26,951 --> 00:04:35,830
Jaideep Bose: Hmm.. yeah I know, I actually.. I have seen a serious change in his body language in the last month.

40
00:04:35,830 --> 00:04:51,040
Jaideep Bose: Earlier he used to be very cocky. But last one month he is kind of looking.. quite nervous.
Niira Radia: Praful, no?
Jaideep Bose: I think Manmohan Singh is (?) himself.

41
00:04:51,040 --> 00:05:04,153
Jaideep Bose: And.. because 2-3 weeks ago he was very, very nervous. But he raped the airlines. Raped it.

42
00:05:04,153 --> 00:05:11,100
Niira Radia: Yeah because their whole intention was to take over the ground handling, to take over the MRO what we call Maintainence Repair and Overall services.

43
00:05:11,100 --> 00:05:12,287
JB: Hmm

44
00:05:12,287 --> 00:05:25,400
Niira Radia: And the whole intention was to asset-strip so that they could give it to Vijay Mallya and Naresh. And then just finish off the airline. And the bilaterals were already given off in any case so you had made this airline a regional airline already.

45
00:05:25,400 --> 00:05:31,926
Niira Radia: And it was no longer a longhaul. And all those assets would have been transferred over.

46
00:05:31,926 --> 00:05:43,776
Niira Radia: And you know, Jojo, everytime you book a slot for an airline, with the manufacturer- that slot itself for a production line, actually carries the value.

47
00:05:43,776 --> 00:05:53,491
Niira Radia: So you can actually go and tell Air India that look, Jet wants that slot.. so Jet could pay $5 million towards slot manufacturing you know..

48
00:05:53,491 --> 00:05:58,623
Niira Radia: so its a huge money making racket.

49
00:05:58,623 --> 00:06:05,321
jaideep Bose: Someone kind of worked.. gave me a kind of envelope calculation of...

50
00:06:05,321 --> 00:06:11,099
JB: I don't know... some 15-18,000 crores.

51
00:06:11,099 --> 00:06:16,670
JB: Over the last 5 years.. Praful Patel.. I don't know if its more or less.. and I don't know whether...

52
00:06:16,670 --> 00:06:18,591
JB: someone in the airline business

53
00:06:18,591 --> 00:06:40,296
Niira Radia: What.. in terms of kickbacks? 
Jaideep Bose: Yeah.. through bilaterals... even stuff which... actually Air India has been forced to give up a lot of space at Delhi and Bombay, apparently to Indigo...no not Indigo... Ya Indigo.

54
00:06:40,296 --> 00:06:46,734
Niira Radia: Indigo yeah.. Indigo has got Praful in it no? 
Jaideep Bose: Yeah?

55
00:06:46,734 --> 00:06:53,717
Niira Radia: Yeah Praful is a silent partner in Rahul's company, Rahul Bhatia's company.

56
00:06:53,717 --> 00:06:56,992
Niira Radia: He is very much there.

57
00:06:56,992 --> 00:07:16,447
Niira Radia: I mean I know because you know Jojo I was trying to get that myself in terms of starting an airline... and he told me very clearly- don't do this because Rahul's(?) going to come in and I mean.. the sort of kickbacks they asked from me for getting the license, I said, go to hell. I'm not gonna give you anything.

58
00:07:16,447 --> 00:07:24,595
Niira Radia: So, at the end of the day.. I won't say its 15-18,000 crores. But I certainly think that they have made about 7-10,000 crores..

59
00:07:24,595 --> 00:07:29,827
Jaideep Bose: No, its bilaterals, aircraft buying and...

60
00:07:29,827 --> 00:07:34,111
Niira Radia: Ground handling?
JB: I was given 3-4 kind of heads.
Niira Radia: Ya.

61
00:07:34,111 --> 00:07:40,780
Niira Radia: Spares? Engine? 
Jaideep Bose: Someone very senior in the airline business kind of made this...

62
00:07:40,780 --> 00:07:48,447
JB: This was several months ago, so I don't remember the number exactly. I remember it being in the vicinity of 15-16 (crores).

63
00:07:48,447 --> 00:08:05,343
Niira Radia: You are probably right. They also gave.. you know they removed Sunil Arora from that position because Sunil had actually exposed them and sent a huge dossier to the cabinet secretary and the Prime Minister- as to what had actually gone wrong in the airline deal.

64
00:08:05,343 --> 00:08:11,975
Niira Radia: Actually I have got that document. I'll send it to you. 
Jaideep Bose: Yeah?
Niira Radia: Hmm.. I have got the whole dossier.

65
00:08:11,975 --> 00:08:20,191
Jaideep Bose: No.. he also sent it to Sonia Gandhi I think. 
Niira Radia: Yes he did.

66
00:08:20,191 --> 00:08:31,199
Niira Radia: He had exposed the whole thing and in fact all the minutes of the meetings are in there... where he was forced to take his hand and he had got them to sign off on those minutes.

67
00:08:31,199 --> 00:08:42,976
Niira Radia: That's when they threw him out. And after that they tried to file some CBI cases against him. And CBI declared that there was nothing against Sunil Arora at all. In fact if there's anybody who can turn this airline around, you should bring him back.

68
00:08:42,976 --> 00:08:52,447
Jaideep Bose: Yeah I've heard very good things about him.. I've barely met him just a couple of times. Everyone, even in Air India they say very good things about him.

69
00:08:52,447 --> 00:09:04,736
Niira Radia: Yeah he is remarkable. He really was a good officer. He brought Indian Airlines into profit. He was quite good so.. they did a lot of injustice to him.

70
00:09:04,736 --> 00:09:23,167
Niira Radia: And Praful wanted him out because he won't cut deals so.. and then this whole deal.. so he wrote this... you know when the deal was going on, he sent this whole dossier to Sonia Gandhi.. and then Sharad Pawar of course used his influence and made sure that he was removed.

71
00:09:23,167 --> 00:09:34,175
Niira Radia: What a scam huh! It all comes home to roost na?
Jaideep Bose: But with somebody else .. not necessarily for the one who did it, no?
(sighs)

72
00:09:34,175 --> 00:09:41,343
Niira Radia: Hmm?
Jaideep Bose: Its comes home to roost other people, not necessarily for the person who was responsible it.

73
00:09:41,343 --> 00:09:52,941
Niira Radia: No I don't know you know.. at the end of the day I don't know how long they can keep on cheating. I don't know. They have really, really.. I am sorry to use the word 'raped' the airline you know. They have killed it., you know.
(tape ends)