Yesterday, The Caravanreleased the names of the journalists who had been sent iPads by the Essar group—an Indian conglomerate that has investments in sectors such as steel, infrastructure and energy— in 2010. These journalists were part of a much larger list, which also included politicians and bureaucrats, and had been circulated within Essar that year. A part of this list is being released today and consists of the politicians who were named in the Essar document and have been contacted by The Caravan for their response. These names are reflected in the original document that has been uploaded as a part of this story. However, we have taken care to blur the names of all those who are still being contacted. Personal details such as addresses, phone numbers and emails addresses have also been blurred.
As we have already stated, this document is the latest in a long string of revelations often termed the Essar Leaks. At the end of last year, a person with access to Essar’s internal communications approached the Delhi-based lawyer and activist Prashant Bhushan. This whistle-blower was privy to details of the company’s attempts at managing the Indian government and media.
The names in this list, as well as the procedure used to contact and deliver a Diwali gift to these individuals, reveals the thought and effort that Essar had invested in cultivating influence amongst those in positions of power. The politicians on the list range across the political spectrum, from Ahmed Patel in the Congress to Arun Jaitley in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Most important political formations in the country are represented by the names on the list—Praful Patel of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), SC Mishra of the BJP, Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party, Sitaram Yechury of the Communist Party of India—Marxist [CPI(M)] and Mukul Roy of the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC).
A former employee from Essar who is familiar with the organisation’s processes told The Caravan that a relationship manager listed under the column “Rel_Mgr” in the document had been assigned the responsibility for delivering the gifts to select subsets on the list. In most cases these iPads were hand-delivered and any that were returned at the spot were marked on the document. Out of a total of 195 iPads that were issued, only 21 were marked returned. Of the politicians on the list being released today, only Jitendra Singh was marked as having returned the iPad.
According to the former official, very few iPads were subsequently returned. However, this is not borne out by the versions given to us by the staff of the politicians we contacted.
Of the twenty-two politicians who were contacted, only one politician admitted that he received the gift. This was M M Pallam Raju, the former minister of state for defence, who told a reporter from The Caravan, "I do remember, and I do not have any connections there [at Essar]. But what happens, you see, these companies keep sending gifts on Diwali and such occasions." Upon being asked whether these gifts were returned, Raju replied, "No. The staff can keep whatever they want."
On the other end of this spectrum were staff members who put up a hostile front. The person who answered the phone at the Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley’s office did not reveal his name. “If you can’t give us the name of the person who gave you this list, I can’t tell you who am I, either,” he told the reporter. “We have nothing to say, and you should stop being a nuisance.”
Ahmed Patel is the political secretary to Congress President Sonia Gandhi. He said that he doesn’t use iPads, and called the allegation of having received one from Essar “absolutely baseless.” He further added, “Is there a signature of somebody receiving that? Of mine, or of somebody who works for me? Anybody can write down names and say whatever they want to.”
Akhilesh Yadav was a member of parliament from the Samajwadi Party then and is now chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. The staff at his residence noted down the query but did not respond subsequently
Ananth Kumar was the general secretary of the BJP then and is now the minister of chemicals and fertilizers. Kumar did not respond to the queries and conveyed through a text message that he is “busy in a series of programs.”
Arun Jaitley was the BJP’s opposition leader in the Rajya Sabha then and is the finance and information and broadcasting minister now. The person who answered the phone at Jaitley’s office did not reveal his name. “If you can’t give us the name of the person who gave you this list, I can’t tell you who am I, either,” he said. “We have nothing to say, and you should stop being a nuisance,” he added before putting the receiver down.
Deepender Singh Hooda is an MP from the Congress party. The receptionist at Hooda’s office provided The Caravan with the mobile number of his personal secretary and noted the query. A message was sent to the personal secretary but no response has been received.
Janardan Dwivedi is the general secretary of the Congress. He said, “I am absolutely not aware of anything of this sort. The only two iPads that I have ever used came from the parliament” before adding, “I do not think I have received any iPad from Essar—or any other company for that matter—ever.”
Kapil Sibal was the minister of human resource and development in 2010. Upon being contacted, he dismissed the allegation of receiving an iPad from Essar as “absolute nonsense.” He added, “I have not received any gift from anybody. This is absolute nonsense.”
Veerappa Moily was the minister for law and justice at the time. He said “I don’t remember,” before disconnecting the call.
Manish Tewari, was a member of parliament from the Congress at the time. He laughed at the query, before answering, “I think somebody at Essar has been pocketing iPads and putting people’s names as recipients. No, I did not receive an iPad. And, as a rule, my office never accepted anything other than maybe flowers or chocolates or something of that sort.”
Mausam Noor was a Congress MP at the time. Pankaj Chaubey, who described himself as a close aide said, “Why on earth would Essar gift Ms Noor an iPad? I can say this on record, on behalf of her, that it wouldn’t have happened. This internal document that you talk of, does it have the signature of the person who received this? We do not accept gifts, except for sweets and such.”
Mukul Roy of the TMC was the minister of state for shipping at the time. His secretary noted the question, but no one answered subsequent calls.
Sitaram Yechury was a CPI(M) MP then and is now the general secretary of the party . He said, “I do not remember specifically, but what happens is that around Diwali lots of people send lots of stuff—and they send it to all the MPs. Now, it is a matter of principle for me that I return everything else other than flowers and sweets and something of that sort. This is what I have followed in the ten years of being an MP. So I am sure it would have been returned if they ever sent it in the first place. I have no recollection.”
Praful Patel, an MP from the NCP was the minister for civil aviation at the time. His personal secretary said, “He is currently in Bombay. As far as I know, he did not receive any iPad around that time, because it would have gone through me.”
Ravishankar Prasad was a BJP MP then and is now the minister for communications and information and technology. His personal secretary said, “It is wrong information. He didn’t receive any iPad.”
Vayalar Ravi was the minister for overseas affairs at the time. His personal secretary got back after checking what he said were relevant records, and said, “No, he did not receive any iPad.”
Shahnawaz Hussain was the national spokesperson of the BJP at the time. Someone at his office, who later identified himself as a guard, began, “Haan, aaya toh tha . . .”—yes, it did come. However, he quickly changed track, “Lekin pata nahi, shayad aaya ho, puraani baat hai. Main to yahaan bas guard hoon. PS sahib ko pata ho shayad. Aap thodi der baad phone karo, abhitoh office khaali hai.”—I am not sure, perhaps it came, and this would have taken place very long back. I am just a guard here. The PS [personal secretary] would know. Please call after some time, the office is empty right now. Nobody answered the phone on subsequent attempts.
Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi was the vice-President of the BJP at the time. His personal secretary said, “Please send us a mail with the serial number and we’ll send you the information.”
Pranab Mukherjee was the finance minister then and is now the president of India. He is shown on the list as having received two iPads. The press secretary to the president asked the reporter to send an email with the queries, but has not responded to the email so far.
SS Ahluwalia was a BJP MP at the time. His personal secretary noted the query and said that he would confirm the information, but has not taken any calls since.
Satish Chandra Mishra was an MP from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) at the time. The query was noted by his personal secretary, but no response has been received.
Venkaiah Naidu was an MP from the BJP at the time. His office noted the query but no response has been received
Jitendra Singh was an MP from the Congress at the time. He is shown on the list as having returned the iPad. His personal secretary noted the details of The Caravan’s queries but subsequent attempts to get in touch have been unsuccessful.
Manish Kedia, the senior vice president of corporate affairs at Essar Services India Limited (ESIL), responded to The Caravan's queries regarding this list and said that, "This email is now almost 5 years old and therefore we will have to check our internal records before confirming whether any such email was exchanged and what was the contents of that email. However, what is shocking is that you are claiming to be in possession of an internal email which may have reached you pursuant to a data theft. Admittedly this email according to you is a communication between our employees and therefore remains the property of the Company. We have recently come to know that data has been stolen from our IT system. This is a matter of grave concern to us because a large number of emails may contain confidential information about the Company and its employees. We request you to immediately provide us a copy of that email...If you circulate, publish and or disseminate any such data and or email or the contents therein then we will take appropriate action in accordance with law."
