Click to play videoNew Delhi: Journalist Madhu Trehan has spent six years investigating the aftermath of Operation West-end, Tehelka's famous sting operation, which exploded onto the national platform, exposing corruption in defence deal-making eight years ago.
That was usurped by a raging moral debate, culminating in an attack on the jouranlists involved - and as Madhu Trehan documents in her book Tehelka as Metaphor - on hapless investors, Shankar Sharma and Devina Mehra.
"People do not know the extent and intensity of the incidents and how they were actually destroyed. They couldn't function," she reveals.
Science and Technology Minister, Kapil Sibal adds, "I was Shankar's lawyer. The witch hunt that went on against Shankar is unbelievable. He won from the courts. That was a vindication of his honour, but the damage that was done through the state agencies was unbelievable."
That's the central incident to Madhu Trehan's book released in the Capital on Sunday evening.
Cobrapost Editor-in-Chief, Aniruddha Bahal says, "The way that time the system went after the investors and also the reporters was eye-opener for us. We didn't think they would go after with such maliciousness, to the extent that the prosecutions are still going on."
Originally some 1,800 pages in its first draft, the book is at under 600 pages, but it still reflects a multiplicity of voices.
"I found that with the same incident you have so many different versions. Sometimes the same person would give different versions, one to the commission of inquiry, one in the Army court of inquiry and a third one to me, and possibly a fourth one to the wife at home - I don't know. And then also, it becomes clear as you read the book - and I researched - that it is very difficult sometimes to get a uniform report of any one incident."
Explosive facts aside, Madhu Trehan certainly has a way with words. This is going to be a book of interest to anyone who's a news buff, interested in current affairs, and of course the entire Tehelka episode.
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