THE ECONOMIC RAPE OF INDIA -- THE BROTHERS MARAN

Dayanidhi Maran’s million-dollar smile is all set to be wiped out. The noose is slowly tightening round his neck. And in days or weeks, like his “aunt” Kanimozhi, he is likely to enjoy the hospitality of Tihar Jail in Delhi, courtesy the CBI. Whether his elder brother and Sun TV’s top honcho, Kalanidhi Maran will keep him company, we’ll have to wait and see. For the misdemeanour under inquiry has been jointly perpetrated by them. The fact that Dayanidhi was a Union Minister at that time, and had blatantly misused that position for business gains, makes things slightly more difficult for him to wriggle out.

The first stone against the younger of the Maran brothers was cast late last night (January 21^st, 2015) when S Kannan, Chief Technical Officer in elder brother Kalanidhi’s Sun TV, K S Ravi, an electrician and V Gowthaman, the Additional Private Secretary to Dayanidhi during his Union Telecom Minister tenure, were picked up in Chennai. The CBI said the three had been arrested to collect crucial evidence which may come up during their custodial interrogation.

If the CBI is really keen to get at the truth (and there is no reason at this juncture to suspect otherwise), they are sure to employ a variety of tactics on the trio, which will make them sing. And if they sing, it’s going to be the hot seat for the brothers Maran.

The evidence hoped to be collected relates to the year 2006-2007, when Dayanidhi is reported to have used his position as Union Telecom Minister to set up a 323-lines mini telephone exchange in his house on the posh Boat Club Road in Central Chennai, to transfer data for and on behalf of his elder brother Kalanidhi’s satellite TV network. According to a secret report prepared by the CBI as early as in September, 2007, the quantum of data transmitted through this illicit link was so huge that it had caused a loss to the nation of a whopping Rs 440 crores.

Of the 323  ISDN lines, which are used for mass transfer of data, voice and video, 23 lines were provided with Basic Rate Access facilities, which would facilitate communicating one socket to three channels. This can be used for transmission of signalling information. According to the CBI report, 48,72,027 units of calls had emanated from one telephone number --  24371515 --  in the month of March, 2007 alone.

Extrapolating this to 323 lines for a 4 month period when the lines were operative – we have an astounding consumption of 630 crore call units. At a rate of 0.70 rupee per call, this works out to a staggering Rs 440 crores.

Though this is peanuts when compared to the Rs 1,76,000 Crores loss caused by Dayanidhi’s successor in the Telecom Ministry, Andimuthu Raja, the audacity with which it was executed and the sheer arrogance of power that motivated it makes it the equivalent of an economic rape of the nation! Dayanidhi’s audacity at that time was such that he could threaten a Ratan Tata to part with a third of Tata DTH shares. He could also threaten the powerful head of the Tata empire not to reveal that he had threatened him! Further, he could strangulate street-fighter entrepreneur C Sivasankaran to sell Aircel, a telecom company promoted by him, to a Malaysia-based industrialist T Anandakrishnan, who in turn was coerced into gifting brother Kalanidhi with a Rs 800 crores DTH platform as an obvious quid-pro-quo!

With Dayanidhi’s grand uncle M Karunanidhi then presiding over Tamilnadu as Chief Minister and virtually dictating terms to a lame-duck UPA Government at the Centre headed by Manmohan Singh, Maran’s misdemeanours were kept under the wraps. Only when relations between the Congress and the DMK began to sour did the CBI muster the courage to commence a preliminary inquiry. A report was filed in 2011. Since then, with frequent prodding from the Supreme Court, the case has inched slowly forward.

The findings as of date indicate that Kalanidhi’s Sun TV had used the illegal telephone exchange to transmit news-related footages, video files and data to various countries and vice versa at the tax payers account. In the process, the TV network is reported to have saved as much as Rs 1300 crores.

But a closer look will indicate that this argument is flawed. The total turnover of the Sun TV group for 2006-07 was Rs 678 crores. When this was so, surely, Rs 1,300 crores cannot be a presumptive expenditure (or potential saving) under a single head namely, data transmission. Something is seriously amiss.

Sources within the BSNL confess that no information was available with them about the numbers assigned to the Dayanidhi Maran exchange. The details were neither with the computer cell nor with Public Grievances cell. The implication is that these 323 numbers had been kept out of the exchange system itself and hence was not known even to the telephone department.

But pray why?

Obviously, the idea was not only to deny the existence of the lines, when push came to shove, but to suppress its existence to everyone including the telephone department. These lines obviously could not have been used by Sun TV to send their programs and data. The mathematics simply does not add up. Surely such subterfuge gives clue to a different dimension altogether.

The arrest of three persons in connection with the illegal telephone exchange and transfer of data case is the first step. What has come out into the public domain is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. A lot more skeletons will tumble out. It will be interesting to see what the CBI manages to unearth.

Meanwhile, here are some credible speculations based on my own long years in the media:

I have been part of the media industry for over three decades. Of this almost two decades have been in the electronic media. A decade and a half of this has been as the head of the News wing of a prominent Tamil satellite TV network. And I know, for a fact, that there is very little possibility or necessity for transferring data to or from a TV channel to any destination in the world to the tune of Rs 440 crores over four months. Then what could be the nature of data said to have been transmitted by the Maran brothers?

Could the telephone exchange have been used for some other more sinister purposes than made out? Was something bigger and better getting transmitted through these telephone lines?

Could the Marans have been using this exchange for eavesdropping on some of India's most powerful and influential? After all, in today’s world, knowledge is power.

Is that why the CBI was reluctant to act despite being in the know for the past five years? Is that why the then Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh was hesitant to act on this matter?

Before anyone dismisses this as a figment of my imagination, let us not forget that in this day of advanced communication technology, eavesdropping is easy, especially if one has a telephone exchange at one’s own residence connected to 323 ISDN lines. Again who can ignore the allegation levelled by the Central Board of Direct Taxation that the offices of the then Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee were monitored through spying devices, which had been pasted in as many as 11 places in his room using adhesives and later been pulled out. The Intelligence Bureau which looked into this allegation at the behest of the Prime Minister, covered up with the unconvincing claim that what was found in the Finance Minister’s was not planted adhesives but chewing gum!

Surely my speculations are no more far-fetched than this.

Can someone come up with a better explanation?