Truth vs Hype

There is something deeply ironic that of all the reform measures that brought the UPA government to a brink, it was allowing FDI into multi-brand retail. Ironic because big retail is only a tiny blip in India's economic radar, not significant enough to merit claims by the government of huge benefits or provoke such widespread protests by the opposition. This week we investigate the claims and counterclaims made by both sides on the merits and dangers of retail FDI, grounded less in facts, and more in propaganda and doublespeak.

On Truth vs Hype this week, right in the middle of a seemingly unending controversy over coal block allocations, comes, what some are calling Iron-gate - the Shah Commission Report, first broken on this show, which has found Goa's iron ore mines guilty of a rash of violations. Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar reacted to the report by suspending all mining operations in Goa until the mine owners can prove they are in the clear. But the threat by Mr Parrikar, who belongs to the BJP to also file FIR's against leaders of the former Congress regime has led to an all out political war. And there are worries that what should have been an opportunity to clean up the deep rot in Goa mining, may have degenerated into the politics of one-upmanship and vendetta.

The CBI's raids on companies allotted that were coal blocks has stirred a hornet's nest. By coincidence or design, three of the five companies raided share the same parentage: the Nagpur-based Jayaswal Group and their business partners, the Dardas, an influential political family from Maharashtra. This week we focus on how the rise of a little-known business family, which went on to get one of the largest number of coal block allotments, could be a modus operandi for Coal-gate. Did the Jayaswal-Darda combine capture millions of tonnes of coal using a mix of political influence, and companies that exist only on paper? And did those companies, simply by owning coal blocks, make crores of profits without spending a single paisa?

In Part-I of our investigation into the coal allocation controversy, we had traced the deep seated flaws in the policy of allotting of captive coal blocks and how it had created conditions ripe for corruption. This week, in Part-II, we cut to the what is the heart of the controversy: Of how dozens of companies with no prior experience or financial backing, in some cases using direct or proxy political connections managed to corner crores of rupees of captive coal.

By the end of this week, a marginal farmer in the neglected region of Jangalmahal in West Bengal would have spent 15 days in jail. His crime? He disrupted a public meeting held by Mamata Banerjee, which made him in her eyes, a Maoist. Truth vs Hype travels to a state that elected a leader with the mandate of change, but is grappling with the politics of intolerance. What has led Mamata Banerjee, the one-time political rebel, to become so averse to dissent? Or is this, as her supporters insist, a selective focus on a few incidents, which ignore her attempts to transform West Bengal?

In Assam, the flames of violence refuse to fully die out. The police say they have made 100's of arrests, registered nearly 400 FIRs, and claim to have provided village pickets in all sensitive districts. But many say that unless those who stoked the hatred are identified and brought to book, the climate of animosity will persist. This week, we investigate systematically how politicians and organisations on both sides resorted to fear-mongering and exaggerated claims on the issue of illegal migration, and then used the violence to further their political ambitions.

Truth vs Hype returns to the Manesar plant of Maruti, where the largely peaceful agitation by workers we had reported on last year has erupted into an outbreak of terrible violence. Reconstructing the event is not easy, because almost all workers involved or present at the plant are on the run, or under arrest. But we try, within those limitations, to find answers to the questions surrounding day of rage at Maruti: How did a negotiation over a suspended worker result in a brutal attack on Maruti officials? Was it a spontaneous outburst, or do it roots lie in a deeper unresolved tensions between the union and management? And what impact will it have on labour equations in Haryana's restless auto belt?

With Abu Jundal's return, we focus on a far more important but forgotten chapter of homegrown terrorism, the Indian Mujahideen.

Ever since it was set up in 2004, the National Advisory Council has existed in a uneasy equation with the government.

A detailed investigation of what is turning out to be one of the most controversial chapters in the history of insurgency.