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TEHELKA: 20 crores.
R.K. JAIN: For me it was just half a per cent. [tehelka
laughs]. I tried to explain Jaya-ji "I can do it
in two per cent" because he said four per cent. Actually half
a per cent that fellow took it to introduce me to Chaudhary.
He was the middleman in between me and Chaudhary. He wanted
half a per cent for himself. And I tried my best to tell Jaya-ji
"Take two per cent." She said, "No, no, Jain, three per cent".
She said, "Don't tell…unless and until they give three per
cent." I said, "Okay, whatever you can…"
TEHELKA: So that was worth how much to you? Half a
per cent of 600 crore?
R.K. JAIN: Nothing much.
[Both laugh]
TEHELKA: That's quite a lot of money.
R.K. JAIN: You see, the kind of…
TEHELKA (interrupts): Half a million dollars.
R.K. JAIN: Yeah. But you see, the place where you're
sitting, you can make any amount of money you want. One deal
of Sukhoi, one deal of air jet trainers and one big deal of
submarines, or like…there was a…. In defence…deals are…all
deals are, you know, 500 crore, 700 crore….
R.K. JAIN: Jaya Jaitly is the second wife. But not
officially married to Jaya Jaitly. She's president of the
party also. So there are two defence ministers. One is George
Fernandes, another is Jaya Jaitly.
[Both laugh]
TEHELKA: That's cute. Very cute.
R.K. JAIN: And I am basically the front of Jaya Jaitly
and George Fernandes. If you want, I can show you the minutes
of the meetings. It is cyclostyled in our different conferences...national
conferences, that whenever party needs money, Mr. Jain will
have to arrange that money and give it to the party. That's
the job of the national treasurer.
TEHELKA: Is there only one treasurer?
R.K. JAIN: Yeah. I can't say, "no". I am the only treasurer.
TEHELKA: How many funds...how much funds did you manage
to generate for the party so far?
R.K. JAIN: Till now I think I'm worth…I have given
them more than 50 crore rupees.
TEHELKA: Fifty crore rupees. And how much did you make
for yourself? It's good business!
[Jain smiles. All laugh]
TEHELKA: No, he is our permanent consultant of West
End International.
TEHELKA: Definitely, definitely. Yeah, yeah.
| Time
to move on from Jain. Coming to know that BJP President
Bangaru Laxman had taken on himself the mantle of swinging
corporate kickbacks, we looked at a way of approaching
him in a costless manner. For a while RSS trustee R.K.
Gupta was asking for a sum of Rs. 25 lakh for an introduction
to Laxman and getting the job done. Sahni, the other defence
middleman, himself had put a figure of Rs. 10 lakh. West
End, obviously, had no budget of that kind. We talked
to H.C. Pant. He offered first to take us to Saheb Singh
Verma, BJP MP, who would then at a cost of Rs. 1 lakh
take us to Laxman. Eventually, Pant
sent Mohan Singh, PS to former Minister of State of Defence
Hiren Pathak, to introduce us to Raju Venkatesh, Laxman's
personal secretary. Venkatesh introduces us to Laxman.
Here's the first meeting. |
{Tehelka gets up to go to the room of Mr.Bangaru
Laxman ]
TEHELKA: Sir, I am from West End International…
BANGARU LAXMAN: Hmm…hmm.
TEHELKA: So I am chief representative. It's written
in my liaisoning this thing.
BANGARU LAXMAN: Hmm, hmm.
TEHELKA: …so we are interested in India investment.
Around…we are interested in 2001 to 2002 around 5,000 crores.
We already moved a proposal to PM that telling him that foreign
direct investment. And we would like to introduce our night
vision for defence….
[Pause]
TEHELKA: Can I show you? This is…this is the proposal.
[Camera moves up]
[Bangaru
Laxman comes into frame]
TEHELKA: Sir, this is hand…. This is the material….
This is thermal…hand-held thermal camera.
BANGARU LAXMAN: Hmm…hmm.
TEHELKA: Already I talked to defence people…officers.
Lt. Gen. [sic] Choudary.
BANGARU LAXMAN: Hmm.
TEHELKA: And Lt. Gen. Dhillon also.
BANGARU LAXMAN: Hmm.s
TEHELKA: So they are willing to take our item. It is
a very good item, compared to CSF-Thomson and El-Op. They…they
are our compet…competitors. That everything is set up there.
Now I need…uh…your favour to Defence Secretary.
BANGARU LAXMAN: I know him…but…no…at what stage the
proposal is?
TEHELKA: The proposal is…if Defence Secretary will
send the…al…. Already the file is with the Defence Secretary.
Already users…that means they will decide which item they
will use or not. So they'll send the file to Defence Secretary.
BANGARU LAXMAN: Hmm.
TEHELKA: So what should we do, thinking on these lines.
So if Defence Secretary will agree, so our company will be
short-listed. We will get around 60 crores of rupees order.
BANGARU LAXMAN: Hmm…who are the people who…who will
help this?
TEHELKA: Yeah.
BANGARU LAXMAN: I mean, there must be some committee
which must have gone in.
TEHELKA: No, that is they've approved. That PNC will
open January first week. Before we have…. Sir, there is one
reason I'll tell you very frankly, openly. So in the bureaucratic
and in the political level, they will not allow in the third
company into the fray. Reason, two companies are already supplying.
The next meeting with BJP President Bangaru
Laxman takes place in the
New Year. By now, the token advance of Laxman had been
whittled down
by West End to Rs. 1 lakh from Rs. 5 lakh. This after
presenting a gold chain
to his other secretary, Sathyamurthi, and a token amount
of Rs. 10,000 to
Raju Venkatesh. All this for the sole purpose that they
would project West
End as a very big and credible company to Bangaru
Laxman . Credible, of course, in this context,
meant the capacity to give huge kickbacks. |
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