Connect the dots
The first leak: bid documents submitted by Videocon and the Adani group, in the auction round last month, have gone missing. Poof.
The second leak: inspired whispering suggests that Sadanand Sule, Sharad Pawar’s son in law, was part of the Videocon bid. Supriya Sule now in damage control mode, denying all links to the IPL.
The picture sought to be painted? Pawar’s support for Modi, fervent till late last evening, stems from the fact that he through his son in law had a major role to play in the controversial auction.
Is the Opposition now going to demand the NCP strongman’s head in the same way it went after Tharoor? The Congress is half hoping something of the kind happens — a Pawar on the defensive is exactly where the party wants him. Unlikely the Opposition will make such noises, though.
Meanwhile, the rehabilitation of Shashi Tharoor continues apace, with a speech in Parliament just now seeking a full inquiry into the charges against him, and complete exoneration — a speech incidentally laced with rhetoric about the voters of Thiruvananthapuram and the great people of India.
Elsewhere, Economic Times — which has been over the last two days in the forefront of surfacing stories of Modi’s shenanigans — scores a hat-trick:
Story 1 talks of how Suresh Chellaram, Modi’s brother in law, saw his IPL holdings appreciate in value 13 times in course of a single year [eat your heart out, Shah Rukh].
Story 2 details financial skulduggery in the awarding of television rights. Worth noting, the fact that board officials were behind the leaks in the first place, and have been quick to suggest, albeit anonymously, that they have nothing to do with any of this.
Story 3, in the interests of cutting off the limbs, goes after one of Modi’s proxies in KXIP. More on him here.
While reading all this, keep one central fact in mind: the GoI has been aware of most of this for at least 8, more likely 10, months now. Just in case you were marveling at how efficient the investigative agencies are, and how quickly the whole ball of wax is unravelling. Also, ask the BCCI how long it has known of the Netlinkblue connection, including the systematic defaulting on payments.
Update: A recurring theme on this blog and elsewhere has been how the Congress is using this controversy to whip its allies and opponents into line. A classic example just now: First, Sharad Pawar was whistled into a meeting to “discuss IPL”, with P Chidambaram and Pranab Mukherjee. At the end of the meeting, he was told to go tell Modi that he had to resign.
Classic example of the deliberate and public use of muscle, to serve as a warning shot: Pawar, after all, is not part of the IPL governing council; outside of being Maharashtra Bombay Cricket Association president, he is not part of the BCCI’s decision making body. So why ask him to convey the message, when there are others — the name of Rajiv Shukla comes to mind — who are far better placed to do the deed?
Plain and simple, a power-play: The Congress telling Pawar, right, you were backing this guy, now you are nominated to go chop him off at the knees. Buck us on this, and we come after you too. Pawar has to do that — and in that helplessness lies the message the Congress is conveying to him.
You haven’t highlighted the role of Rajiv Shukla in all this mess. The troika of Modi, Pawar and Shukla should be investigated.
Shukla plays the role he always plays — that of facilitator/go-between.
Media already seems to be toning down language on ST ! They got their pound of flesh
Prem,
I think -> If Cong go after Sharad Pawar (or A Raja for Telecom scams), then they might lose seats in the assembly if the NCP faction turn against Cong. So, while an inquiry maybe ordered against Pawar (or other NCP leaders) for their association with IPL, nothing will come of it. Same with Raja’s case as well.
With Tharoor, he was Cong’s own man and was possibly easier to ask him to resign. For all we know, he may comeback as a MoS later when this fire dies down.
You don’t need to go after Pawar — just surface enough stuff to embarrass him and keep him in line. He needs the UPA’s benevolence to make a lot of this go away, no?
Absolutely. I think Cong will do just that. and The AXE-effect will be on Modi.
Pawar will want things to be wrapped up quickly,as he wants to have a smooth transition to ICC as well ensure that UPA does’t lean on him.
Sharad Pawar is too big a fish. He was not affected by spiraling food prices and hyper inflation and failure of his ministry in many other ways. This scam is just a minor blip for him. He is a shrwed politician and might sacrifice Modi and even Praful Patel if needed.
Shashi Tharoor says “Live Credit Policy Analysis on ET Now | Tharoor: Deeply wounded by fanciful and malicious charges, don’t want to embarass the govt, I want to clear my name that has been besmirched, have asked PM to probe charges against me”.
Is it his way of hitting back at Modi ?
I pasted the quote from ET site. Damn – The credit policy bit came along. Sorry about that.
What I still can’t understand why Tharoor screwed up here. He writes well, and had the world at his feet. Why did he get involved in this ridiculous scheme? The apparent greed doesn’t quite jive with the high-minded language (even if it’s just 140 characters at a time)…
That’s the thing, he was an idiot, but not greedy. First up, consider that no one has bothered to tell you how the 70 crore figure is derived. I am no expert, but even 5 per cent of a 25 per cent stake doesn’t add up to anything like that number, for me. Secondly, word doing the rounds always was, SP held the equity as proxy for certain cricketing figures who did not want to appear in public. My best guess is, ST used his muscle to ensure a level playing field, trump the Videocon/Adani game, and ensure that a franchise in which his girlfriend plays an insignificant role wins the bid fair and square. Modi outed SP-ST connection, tacked on the 70 crore figure, and everyone jumped on it and repeated it mindlessly. Not to absolve Tharoor — an investigation is the best mechanism to fix guilt or innocence anyway — but if you step back and look at that picture, this is what you see.
1.70 crores is 5% of 25% of 1500 crores(The bid amount), assuming that is the current valuation of the franchise. It works to about 70-75 crores
2. I remember certian ICON player wanted to invest in the first auction itself. BCCI barre that saying that no current player can participate. Wonder whether he has indirectly invested now?
Who was that ? Tendulkar ?
See the below link
http://www.indianpremeirleague.com/news/sachin-cant-own-ipl-team/
5% of 25% of 1500 crores = 18.75 crores
The money that Ms Pushkar (would have) got is notianal. She does not receive a single paisa until the company turns profiable, or is sold.
In that case, and only in that case, will she receive 5% of the profits or sale proceeds.
Franchise value – USD 330 million or Rs. 1400 crore. 5% stake = Rs. 70 crore (it wasn’t 5% of 25% – overall 25% of the franchise was given away as free equity, Sunanda got 5%).
As for, “investigation is the best mechanism to fix guilt or innocence anyway” – shouldn’t that apply to Lalit Modi too? Why so much speculation?
Is it true digital media rights is with Modi clan. I always wondered how modi promotes the iplt20 website and the youtube action every single time he gets airtime..
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/93658/India/Dubai+honcho+among+those+under+lens.html
thanks, had added that link to the original post.
Here’s what I think may happen ->
Modi resigns on 26-Apr, say, after the final. BCCI chiefs take over, Modi goes undercover and is not traceable, Enquiry goes into a big loop, Pawar and others wash their hands off. The story plays on for a few days/weeks in the media and dies a natural death.
Old wine in new bottle?
Prem
Your posts are really entertaining. Appreciate the efforts in putting up this stuff amidst most probably, a hectic work schedule
The only thing I wonder here about it is the squeals of surprise in the comments to your posts. Particularly when it comes to revelations about digital rights of IPL . GCV/ LCM or for the vRock Mobiles which has picked up the SMS/IVR/MMS/Contest rights for this year.
All these companies came out of nowhere to gather the rights for themselves, why do u people find it surprising when they get to know that all these companies had links going upto LKM. Wasn’t it very well known that not all is clean with IPL.How the hell can some unknown company come out of nowhere and pick things for themselves without having connections to the powers.
A lot of us are privy to what happens inside the cricketing circles both on – ground and as well the official machinations. Its just that the occasion is perfect now to start putting up posts now about this. Beautifully crafted and generous sprinkling of the typical masala – makes a wonderful read.
And we are a population which always keeps drooling over stuff like this, all bollywoodish type stuff. Good going Sir…keep the stuff flowing
Yeah, it was well known. And written, on this blog and other places, even during season 1. Just that at the time Modi was the golden boy, so no one was in the mood to listen.
Absolutely,
Perhaps we ourselves were taken in by the hype and the promises of some great entertainment. And that is what pains the most . If IPL3 started off with excessive advertising , this controversy now will be a deathblow.
I guess Ranji games would be a better thing to watch, at least we can see some better Cricket
5% of 1500 crores is 75 crores right? Its actually 18% of 25% free equity which is 4.5%, somehow 4.5% got rounded off to 5%
Watch this video: LKM in action…
i have been barking since day 1 that GVC is a company as fishy as its name. also, this link brings so many things into perspective:
1. the oft repeated plea that BCCI doesnt hav a website. now we know why. if the digital rights r dodgy, n Modi knows it, he wud hav an interest in making sure it hangs in limbo forever.
2. the BCCI “official” website may not be that official at all. Hence the broken links, the “under construction” for perpetuity. also it now redirects to the ChampionsleagueT20.in but has BCCI.tv soon pasted all over it. a link directs u to bccicricket.org (a website one has never heard of as anything official), maintained by one ParaMatrix solutions. What are the odds of any senior personnel at the BCCI knowing of this association? If they dont, how is it official.
3. Ppl like N Srinivasan, Bindra have held offices n also been lauded for their contribution, efficient administration. In this whole episode, their lack of basic intelligence and/or prima facie compliance is there for all to see. How can they continue in office? If anything, the fact that Modi got away with such humongous wrongdoing for so long, is an indication that its a clear cut case of collective responsibility and hence the whole top line must resign. Why isn’t anyone raising this point?
4. Also, the big daddy of them all, jus how small a fish Dalmiya actually was, when he was accused of corruption? What are the odds of his comeback now
missin documents.. IT is goin to find it hard to trace anythin now.. the trails goin to go cold.. but hopefully they’ve enough ammo to take down modi n sme others.. looks very unlikely that anyone else will take the heat.. esp not the pawar clan… whats the angle behind mallya’s support.. wht is his interest??
So the comprehensive investigation by IT, ED, MCA, IB will result in LKM quitting on 26th and life goes on as usual for everyone else?
Your blog reminds me of the fake ipl player blog and how the people would get the inside scoop of what really goes on in IPL season 2. Kudos to you for bringing out the information in the public domain who would not have a clue what actually goes behind the game of cricket and the behind the scenes.
Don’t you think its a conflict of interest that N Srinivasan has an IPL team and a position in the BCCI too, why is media not talking about it?
Also I don’t understand why the media/people keep saying the IPL was the brainchild of Lalit Modi, which would have not happened if Subash Goyal had not come up with the ICL. People have short memories, don’t they?
Dug up a old link from the old smoke signals, where within minutes of ipl official site becoming up, your blog had found out the “smoke signals” – http://www.prempanicker.com/index.php?/site/comments/ipl_website_is_up_finally/ . Just goes on to show it was all in the open, but nobody cared to ask questions till now.
Lets see -IT officials find proof of Pawars’ son in laws sweat equity in Adani group bid papers. Pranab finds his ultimate weapon! Pranab first leaks information to the media to put public pressure on Pawar, meets and shows Pawar the proof and demands he behaves himself. Pawar has no other choice and hence he calls Modi tellng him to resign in exchange for Pranab telling everyone that the papers have disappeared! Just like the good old congress…The only question is what will the BJP do about it? I am sure they know of all this hanky panky.
Lessons for ourselves: What actually happened to Modi was the same thing that happens to all who tend to be narcissistic. They tend to forget about other things, the “self” gets into the head. Which leads to ignoring others around us. Had it occurred to Modi anytime that he could be so easily dumped, he would have behaved better. What on earth prompted him to tweet against a union minister, other than his bloated ego???
Prem,
Really nice work over the past few days. Your blog is THE place to visit for the real goings-on in the IPL. A few questions:
1. How much effort does it take for you to get the news items (not the writing part) that are not in the public domain? If it isn’t too much, there is no excuse for news channels to peddle banalities as they are currently doing.
2. It is clear that people who were “big” players are now pawns in a larger game. It also seems inevitable that Modi will go. But won’t he, then, bring everybody else down with him? Or will the GoI throw its weight behind those it wants to shield? The endgame promises to be interesting.
3. The bitter taste in my mouth doesn’t come from Lalit Modi/Sharad Pawar being accused of skulduggery. I expected nothing better from them. But Sachin Tendulkar being dragged into this is another matter altogether. I cannot begin to describe the admiration I have for him, not just as a player but also as a person. If the allegations of him acting through a proxy are true, that would be very sad. However, I suspect we will never know the truth.
Oh no!!! He’s God. He can’t do no wrong as he proved while deposing in favour of Harbhajan.
So, you know for sure that he lied? That’s amazing..For what it’s worth, he was the one in the best position to really know what happened there. But, hey, its the white people, they wont lie..
Plain and simple, a power-play: The Congress telling Pawar, right, you were backing this guy, now you are nominated to go chop him off at the knees.
You are using ‘The Congress’ in your articles. Who exactly belong to ‘The Congress’? Sonia Gandhi? Manmohan? A specific group?
Can you elaborate?
Number of instances where media has misled in the past few days:
1. “Mysterious woman leaving Modi’s office with files 30 minutes before IT officers arrived” – turns out, she was only carrying the files to show it to another set of IT officers in his other office.
2. “Adani bid papers missing!” – turns out it is normal practice to dispose off the bids of unsuccessful bidders after a certain period. Adani group has copies of the bid if required.
I think the media (including the twits) should stop speculating and let the law take its course.
I am no Modi fan. But, these leaked emails seem to tell a different tale:
http://www.cricinfo.com/ipl2010/content/current/story/456803.html