Whenever I read the headlines these days, I've been coming across a lot stuff related to the Radia Tapes. So what’s the big deal behind these tapes? The answer to that question lies in the concept called “Lobbying”.
Wikipedia defines Lobbying as “the intention of influencing decisions made by legislators and officials in the government by individuals, other legislators, constituents, or advocacy groups.”
Now imagine a government, more precisely a democratic government like India. The government quite literally governs the nation and it is internally divided into 3 branches.
The first branch deals with the creation of laws known as the Legislative Branch. The people involved in legislation are known as legislators.
The second branch is the Judicial Branch which has the power to interpret legislation. All the judges and magistrates come under the Judiciary.
The third branch is known as the Executive branch and obviously deals with the execution of the law. The president, vice-president, and the cabinet come under this branch.
So from all this we can understand that there is a distribution of power in the government and by influencing one of the branches a person or organization may have a lot to gain.
By applying some common sense we can observe that the legislative branch is the best place to use our influence as it involves “Creation of Laws”. This is where our Lobbyist comes along and influences the legislator’s decision which can have serious effects on “passing a bill” i.e. approval of the law by majority of the legislators. A lobbyist generally works on behalf of some external organization.
Whether lobbying is good or bad can be best left for another article. (A pretty long one actually… and hopefully my next!!!). In this case, lobbying turned out to be pretty BAD for Niira Radia.
It all started back in 2008 when A. Raja (Cabinet minister for IT back then. Presently resigned) decided he needed more money. So he looked around and found the perfect opportunity in 2G spectrum allocation. He started discussions with Radia (the lobbyist) who set up meetings with top Industrialists through phone calls.
Mr. Raja offered them the 2G spectrum at a lesser cost compared to the market value for a small gift in return. This small gift is now the biggest political corruption case in modern Indian history going into figures of $40 billion with Ms. Radia right in the middle of it.
Now if you’re looking for a lucrative career option with high perks then Lobbying is the way to go. Only make sure you learn a few morals from this 2G Spectrum Scam.
