The sensational disclosure of audio-tapes containing alleged conversation between Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu and nominated Anglo-Indian MLA Elvis Stephenson with regard to buying the latter’s support in the recent MLC elections has raised several questions.
Are the audio-tapes genuine? If they are genuine, when, why and how they were recorded? Do they stand in the court of law?
According to one version, there is reason to believe that the tapes could be genuine. Going by the statements of the Telugu Desam Party leaders, it appears that the conversation might have taken place, as they say it did not anywhere mention about bribing and that Naidu might have called Stephenson to seek his support. However, there is no clarity as to when the conversation took place.
Secondly, Parakala Prabhakar, media advisor to Chandrababu Naidu, indirectly admitted that the voice could be that of Naidu by saying that the sentences of Naidu spoken on different occasions could have been cut and paste in the tape to suit the Telangana Rashtra Samithi conspiracy against him. Though he later said the voice did not belong to Naidu, his contradictory statements gave rise to several suspicions.
However, there is another version to reject this argument. The conversation was not recorded by the Anti-Corruption Bureau authorities but was done by a third person. So, there is every reason to suspect that the audio tapes could be doctored by the TRS leaders.
Interestingly, if it is a tapped or recorded conversation, there would be difference in the volumes of the people involved in it.
The voice of the person who records the conversation would have more clarity than that of the person speaking at the other end. But here, both the voices are of same quality and clarity.
So far, the ACB authorities have not owned up the audio-tapes and filed any case against Naidu. The entire hungama is only in the media and of course, among the TRS and TDP leaders.
