Corporate lobbying where done in yesteryears by Industry captains themselves. Dhirubai Ambani had such a clout with the Finance Ministry he could always get a sneeze of impending CVD and anti dumping duty on PTA, his imported raw material to locally available DMT manufactured by Bongaigaon Refineries. He always managed to get pre dated letters of credit to avoid payment of anti dumping duty. He always utilised the services of Ex Bank bosses to corner benefits for his RIL and when Gurumurthi supported by Late Ramnath Goenka was tearing him apart, it  was alleged that he drove straight to the media baron with a pistol requesting him to stop writing about his group else shoot him dead. Later on he bought Business and political observer to rebut charges of Gurumurthi. It was alleged that Pranab Mukerjee was his pointman in the cabinet and he almost always managed to be the Finance Minister. 

The alleged lobbying by Niira was sub standard judging from her conversations which lacked seriousness. she was talking as if she was gossiping and there was never an authority on her tone as to her sway over individuals as alleged now by the media. It is an innocuous tapping ordered by the then Finance Minister following a complaint about Radia being a foreign agent which led to the cocktail party talks gaining respectability. 

Salman Khursheed talked about codifying lobbying. Well  as some one argued lobbying per se is something a marketing man would always do as if his birth right to promote his product, service or enterprise. Normally industry associations lobby for protectionist measures in the wake of surge of imports which are cheaper than Indian make. Usually governments also oblige to protect home grown industry. Even our Government has an official lobbyist in US to influence Congressmen in policy decisions. they are paid by the Exchequer.

What is the big deal about Nira Radia?

Let us go further in the next blog post