Saala Slimeball // Tarun Das

While Niira Radia's lobbying on behalf of A. Raja for the Telecom portfolio in 2009 is now well known, the latest tapes to surface in the ever widening scandal known as ‘Radiagate' point towards the role of the former head of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), Tarun Das, in getting Kamal Nath the office of Minister of Road Transport and Highways.

In one of his conversations with Ms. Radia in May 2009, when the process of Cabinet formation in the UPA-II was still on, Mr. Das boasts of how he had suggested “big time” for Mr. Nath to be given the key infrastructure portfolio. This despite him accusing the Congress politician of “mak[ing] money” by skimming “15 per cent” from projects under his charge.

When Ms. Radia asks about the induction of some Ministers in the UPA-II and says Mr. Nath's allocation of portfolio was a “bit shocking,” the former CII Chief Mentor reveals that he had batted for Mr. Nath to get the coveted Ministry. “Between you and me,” he tells Ms. Radia, “I had suggested it for him... I had suggested it big time.”

Accusing Mr. Nath's predecessor — Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's T.R. Baalu — of messing up highway development work during his five-year tenure in UPA-I, Mr. Das says: “Because highways construction and road construction is really a priority… he [Mr. Nath] will do a good job. “He is a doer,” he asserts {Read on} { scroll down and read the comments too}