I Was Just Doing My Job

Taking on A.Raja ... Niira Radia, P. Chidambaram ... the entire telecom sector and all the mightiest corporates in India was not part of the plan says Shalini Singh

- Shalini Singh

I WAS WORKING WITH The Times of India in 2007, covering several sectors, of which telecom was one. In the course of daily reporting, I found myself inadvertently documenting not a scam, but the detailed script of a scam — one that was yet to take place.

Every story I wrote unfolded a sinister reality — about administrative, political, legal and corporate culpability at the highest levels. It was unimaginably scary and a nightmare I didn’t want to be in. Every story invited a powerful adversary, which eventually became an army, all standing together against one individual — me.

Taking on A. Raja, or his sinister aide, R. K. Chandolia, Niira Radia, P. Chidambaram, then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the PMO, Solicitor General, Ghoolam Vahanvati, government law officers, leading private lawyers, the entire telecom sector and all the mightiest corporates in India was not part of the plan. I was just a journalist doing her job. But because it was investigative work which was 100 per cent accurate, all that just came with the package.

Anyway, I couldn’t stop myself and somehow, all these “powerful” people couldn’t stop me either. So, despite the fact that almost all my own colleagues were also found standing with the enemy, which made my work very, very difficult, I managed to document between 2007-2014, every single aspect of what is now known as the Rs 1.76 lakh crore 2G scandal − the award of 2G spectrum licences in a highly preferential manner on January 10, 2008.