The leaked emails in the AirAsia scam seized by investigators show accused and controversial lobbyist Deepak Talwar’s firm charged more than Rs.35 lakhs per month from AirAsia for lobbying with Government officials for favorable orders and media houses for positive coverage. The long proposal of Deepak Talwar’s firm Deepak Talwar Associates (DTA) to AirAsia explains how to create a favorable atmosphere for the tainted Malaysian origin flight firm in Government and media world.
This was a proposal by DTA to AirAsia and in the interest of fairness we are avoiding displaying the pages containing the names of people mentioned by the accused lobbyist.
We are publishing only two pages of the proposal of 2013 which describes how to operate a favorable and commercially viable atmosphere and the monthly charges for these activities sent via email by Deepak Talwar’s lobbying firm DTA to AirAsia. In the media list given by DTA, the firm suggests how to tackle the journalists by naming them. This is a long list of journalists reporting about matters of Civil Aviation and most of them are known for their integrity.
Some guys mentioned for targeting by Deepak Talwar are however crooks and corrupt journalists. Some are Editors of media houses. One such individual was an Editor of a major business newspaper and is a known Deepak Talwar agent, and is now running a website along with another former Editor of a newspaper. This site is now in the business of Liberal and Moral preaching activities. But the majority of the names in the list are regular reporters covering Civil Aviation from Print, TV and News agencies. It appears as though Talwar tried to milk more money from AirAsia by putting all the names of journalists in Delhi and Mumbai engaged in Civil Aviation Sector and all Editors’ names.
This was a proposal by DTA to AirAsia and in the interest of fairness, we are avoiding displaying the pages containing the names of people mentioned by the accused lobbyist. We are also avoiding the list of officers to target as specified by DTA to AirAsia for favorable actions. Like media persons, the list of officers is also just a who-is-who in the Civil Aviation, Commerce and Finance Ministries. Only the first two pages of the proposal is shown below.
Detailing the negativities and current illegalities of AirAsia, Deepak Talwar’s DTA suggests lobbying techniques: “Given the above ground realities and desired objectives, DTA will develop and put in action a focused public affairs plan aimed at achieving. An outreach and Relationship building with Key Stakeholders in relevant constituencies as outlined in the Annexure 1,” said the proposal attached to the email from Deepak Talwar’s DTA to AirAsia. The Annexure 1 is full of the names of Journalists, Editors and officials to target.
Detailing the names of Journalists and Editors, the Deepak Talwar’s firm tells AirAsia: “Their opinions and reportage has an influence on many key stake holders. Media is also the key vehicle for disseminating our messages.”
“DTA will establish channels of communications with them for AirAsia and keep them informed of developments within the Airline as well as arrange one on one meetings for senior management,” outlines accused Deepak Talwar’s firm DTA on how to manage the media houses, Editors and journalists.
For all these lobbying activities DTA says they need $34,500 USD monthly as staff charges including Talwar’s fees based on hourly remuneration and $20,000 USD as Retainership. This email attachment shows that Deepak Talwar’s firm DTA was charging monthly $54,500 US dollars (more than Rs.35 lakhs) from AirAsia for covert operations and lobbying.
The email attachment of Deepak Talwar’s proposal to AirAsia is published below:
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Paid and antinational media is the backbone of corrupt congress regime
Being from outside Delhi, I always used to wonder as a student, how these retd defence personnel,bureaucrats and many people with little or no achievement to show occupy those big bungalows in sainik farms,maharani bagh etc.It is acting as middleman like this Talwar, they have all those palatial houses.Time for India to get rid of all middlemen, even farmers would stop protesting if you get rid of these leaches.
Wire website’s MK Venu is a known Deepak Talwar man. After leaving Economic Times, Venu was closely associated with broker Talwar’s firms.
The list of journalists n officials should be published. They were only proposed to be targeted by DTA. There is no suggestion of bribes here. So what’s the harm in releasing the names? It’s entirely in the public interest.
Yes names of journalists should be publishes., For a common man he thins all journalists are unbiased neutral and a holy man.. they are the most corrupt and crooks and take money from both sides. It is a known fact that it is paid journalism in India. You have to name and shame the journalists.
Well done!
Once again you have managed to expose details of a major scam that I’m sure other well established ‘trusted’ media houses knew about, but were reluctant to publish for fear of repercussions to their bottom line.