No stone unturned

Her qualifications may have been the subject of debate in court yesterday but Radia's proximity to former telecom minister A Raja was not in doubt, if the fresh transcripts of phone taps submitted by the Central Bureau of Investigation are anything to go by. One of them records a conversation between Radia and Nita Chandolia, wife of Raja's personal secretary. They were discussing a particular stone, a yellow sapphire, that Radia said the minister needed to wear and which she was trying to source. Apparently, Chandolia said, he was averse to wearing the stone as a ring and wanted to keep it in his pocket instead, but Radia was insistent that the stone needed to touch his skin. So, Radia suggested perhaps he could wear it on a chain around his neck. It is not clear whether Raja actually got to wear this auspicious stone; if he did, it was clearly of little use.