Ian Buruma: "Perhaps it could only have happened in India, this story of skulduggery, official venality, legalistic absurdity, conspiracy theories, dotcom enterprise, and personal courage. Two years ago, a fine journalist from Outlook magazine, named Tarun J Tejpal..."
(January 16, 2002)

If you take a bribe, we'll nail you by Nadja Vancauwenberghe and Maurice Frank: "There is little about the modern air-conditioned office building on Soami Nagar, a residential street in South Delhi, to suggest that it was the nerve centre of one of the most devastating media exposés in Indian history. But it's here that Indian..."
(June 4, 2001)

Salman Rushdie: "The current hit single It Wasn't Me by Shaggy (featuring Rikrok) celebrates, with wickedly infectious glee, the uses of shamelessness. A man caught red-handed cheating on his girl - a man watched by said girl making love to someone else on the sofa,..."
(April 9, 2001)

Sting on a shoestring by Luke Harding: "As Major SJ Singh walked into the penthouse suite of Delhi's Oberoi hotel, he noticed nothing amiss. The surroundings were luxurious. And the man who rose to greet him from the plush sofa seemed entirely plausible if, perhaps, a little young to be the..."
(March 21, 2001)

Scandal rocks Indian government by Luke Harding: "Can India's coalition government survive? After one of the most tumultuous weeks in modern Indian politics, the answer appears to be - probably…"
(March 19, 2001)

Indian MPs label PM a thief
Staff and agencies: "Angry opposition lawmakers called the prime minister a thief and shut down the Indian parliament today, as they demanded the government resign over a bribery scandal that was revealed by journalists with hidden cameras."
(March 14, 2001)

CNN.COM

Vajpayee's uncharacteristic tough side by Mark Tully: "Tehelka means sensation and the web-site certainly created a sensation with its secret filming of the president of the BJP receiving a wad of notes"

FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REVIEW

(Bribe Sting Nails Target by Joanna Slater: "A hidden camera plunges the ruling coalition into crisis. While not enough to topple the government, the exposé has cost it dearly"
(March 29, 2001)

TIME.COM

Cash, Lies and Videotape by Maseeh Rahman: "It's just going to confirm people's worst fears - that this nation is governed by an unbelievably corrupt and politically bankrupt class. Not a single erring bureaucrat from the Defense Ministry has been suspended."
(March 27, 2001)

How a Plucky Dot-Com Changed India's Political Landscape by Maseeh Rahman: "Tehelka is a delightful Urdu word, difficult to translate. It refers to that special kind of tumult provoked by a daring act, or a sensational piece of writing. And that's exactly the effect that was provoked in India's government this week by a group of young Indian journalists who last year chose the word to name their web site"
(March 16, 2001)

India's Establishment Dot-Compromised by Maseeh Rahman: "(Tehelka) sent a few of its journalists out posing as arms dealers waving wads of cash at politicians and generals, and then filmed the resulting transactions with secret cameras. The result? A corruption dot-bombshell that has shaken India's political establishment to the core."
(March 14, 2001)

DAWN

No tehelka please, we're Pakistanis by Ayaz Amir: "The tehelka expose in neighbouring India is both reassuring and humbling. Reassuring in the sense that it is good to know that somebody else can be as corrupt and rapacious as us. Humbling in the sense that something like the tehelka expose could not happen in Pakistan. National security or some such excuse would take care of that."
(March 23, 2001)

Lessons from the arms scam By Afzaal Mahmood: "Even though there is no immediate threat to the coalition government, the implications of the arms deal expose will be far-reaching because the scandal has done an irreparable damage to the political and moral authority of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee."
(March 26, 2001)

The tumult next door By M H Askari: "What the video tapes and transcripts released by tehelka.com under the code name of Operation West End disclosed were two journalists, disguising themselves as middle-men for the sale of military hardware, striking a "deal" with Mr Bangaru Laxman…"
(March 21, 2001)

Living by the same logic By M J Akbar: "Four C's control the image of Indian politics: corruption, communalism, compromise and criminalisation…"
(April 3, 2001)

After-shocks of Tehelka By Dr Maqbool Ahmad Bhatty: "The revelations about corruption and graft in high places in India by an internet company, Tehelka.com, have affected Indian politics, and the fortunes of the BJP"
(March 24, 2001)

HINDUSTAN TIMES

Errors of commission by A G Noorani: "Its threat to press freedom apart, the Tehelka commission is utterly irrelevant as an exercise for restoring public confidence and unworkable as a mechanism for ascertaining the truth"
(April 17, 2001)

SHAME: "But to have actually seen the politicians and top defence personnel openly accepting money from "middlemen" and brag about it was a very traumatic experience."
(2001)

THE INDIAN EXPRESS
Eyes wide shut by Kuldip Nayar:" The former Supreme Court judge probing the Tehelka disclosures may, at best, end up naming the guilty. But that will not serve the real purpose."
(April 10, 2001)

We have seen the dirt, now it's time to clean up: Don't fast forward the tape by J N Dixit: "Those directly involved should be made to face the consequences of their greed regardless of whether they are civilians, military officers or politicians"
(March 22, 2000)

REDIFF.COM
The rot within by Kuldip Nayar: "The rot is so deep that the limited investigation is not even sufficient to scratch the surface. People have to be shaken out of sloth and the readiness to compromise."
(April 16, 2001)

rediff.com: The Great Defence Scandal (rediff.com)

BUSINESS LINE

NDA in troubled waters by Kuldip Nayar: "The Government's promise that the Tehelka inquiry report would be available at the end of four months is wishful thinking"
(Business Line, May 11, 2001)

THE HINDU

Misusing Power by Kuldip Nayar: "…the treatment meted out to the Tehelka outfit and the First Global Stockbroking Private Limited… The latter's only fault was that it had invested money in Tehelka. The troubles of both began the day the Tehelka tapes were shown on TV networks, exposing corruption in high places."
(December 31, 2001)

'Expose on defence deal' puts NDA Govt. in a spot by Harish Khare: "The BJP president, Mr. Bangaru Laxman, resigned tonight after he was shown accepting large wads of currency from a fake ``defence manufacturer''.
(March 14, 2001)

NDA's hour of shame: "Venality, widespread and massive, its reach extending from the low to the higher reaches of the NDA Government, stands exposed by Tehelka's sting operation that was made public"
(March 15, 2001)

Blowing the whistle by Harish Khare: "Only those totally indifferent to the demands of ethics and morality in public life can seek to rubbish the revelations by questioning the methods Tehelka used."
(March 18, 2001)