The untold part of The Untold Story

The entourage promoting senior journalist and my former boss Tamal Bandyopadhyay's book Sahara: The Untold Story came to Delhi last week. After releases by retired regulators in Mumbai and Bangalore, it was the turn of former Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai. Rai praised the author's acumen in business reporting and recalled how in 2004, Chidambaram, then finance minister, had told him to track the author. He referred to some humorous parts in the book including one in "page 251" where the author "was not present" when Katrina Kaif performed "Sheila ki Jawaani" for the Sahara brass and the UP chief minister. In the reading session that followed, the author and a former colleague read out a longish interview, with the latter playing Sahara chief Subrata Roy.

The questions ranged from the group's roots at a former chief minister's unclaimed fortune to its alleged involvement in money-laundering. The answers were grand statements and denials, reminiscent of the group's claims in many full-page advertisements. Sample: "I can only say one thing and you can record it 10 times - I have never done one wrong in my life. That's how I can fight."

Curiously, the launch's press release said it was handled by Concept Public Relations, the firm which manages the Sahara group's public relations.

Akash Shah, publisher, Jaico Books, said, "I know Vivek Suchanti (promoter of Concept) well. Besides, he played a role in resolving the issue between Sahara and the author out of court."

B N Kumar, executive director of Concept, said there was no clash of interest as the issue had been resolved and they were gearing up for roadshows in Pune and Lucknow.

The event turned stormy when the floor was opened for questions. Someone, ostensibly a sympathiser of the group, asked if the author thought Sahara was being hounded? Some feathers were ruffled as they inferred that the author's answer sounded like he did not rule out such a possibility. A reader objected saying how the author could suggest that the group was possibly being hounded when there was a Supreme Court order that clearly stated that the group was trying to misuse the judicial process, including by pressurising the judges.

The author's further explanations did not convince the reader, even as a question from fellow journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta came to his rescue.  But, it proved even trickier as Thakurta asked why an advance copy was shared with Sahara even before publishing. He wanted to know if the author was convinced with the work, could he not have gone to print first and then face the consequences like everybody else did.

Bandyopadhyay said it was a decision of the publisher Jaico and he was not in the loop. As far as he was concerned, only the interview with Roy which was about 4,000 words in the entire book spanning 80,000 words was shared with the group before it took final shape.

The author asserted he had not included even a single word in the book that could not be backed by documentary or circumstantial evidence. He travelled wide and dug deep to get all he wrote. But, not everything that happened has been documented and people who have critical documents like the regulators did not honour RTI requests. Therefore, like Rai described, the book is "the told part of the untold story". The untold part still waits to be told.