Vadra investigation: Congress attacks NDTV as FirstPost gets praise – what's going on?

Fans of the Narendra Modi government still get annoyed when a minister, usually Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, gives an interview to NDTV. Despite its wide-ranging coverage, the TV channel has always been considered hostile to the Modi government – not least because of its allegedly murky financial dealings and the involvement of one of its star journalists in the Radia Tape revelations. Network18, with its online outlet FirstPost, famously lost its primetime anchors in 2014 because of a diktat against criticising Modi.

In a sign of just how much the media landscape has changed – as well as a reminder that Indian news organisations never fall into neat binaries – NDTV and FirstPost fell into rather unusual positions over the last few days, all as a result of an investigation into the business dealings of Congress President Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra.

On Tuesday, NDTV reported on a new investigation into Vadra's dealings, saying the government wants to ascertain whether a controversial arms dealer bought a benami proxy-owned property in London for him in 2008. Vadra's meteoric rise as a businessman ever since his marriage to Priyanka Gandhi has always been looked upon suspiciously and agencies are currently investigating allegedly illegal land deals in Rajasthan, Haryana and elsewhere.

NDTV's report was based on emails sent to Sumit Chadda, a relative of arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari whose properties were raided by investigation agencies last month.

"Two preliminary reports prepared after the raids state that Robert Vadra and his executive assistant sent several emails discussing payments and renovations for a London home (12 Ellerton House, Bryanston Square) bought for 19 lakh GBP (Rs. 19 crores) in October 2009 and sold in June 2010," wrote NDTV's Barkha Dutt and Sudhi Ranjan Sen on May 31.

The following day a FirstPost headline promised an 'exclusive' on the issue.

The piece, written by Sandipan Sharma, claimed that the London property that had been mentioned in the NDTV report was "not even remotely" connected to Robert Vadra.

"According to official documents, the flat no 12 in Ellerton House, located in Central London is owned by Harold and Shirley Sacks, not by any company allegedly fronting for Vadra.

The current owners had bought this flat for 9,50,000 GBP on 23 September, 2005, documents reveal. Since then, the property has not changed hands."

— Sandipan Sharma, FirstPost.

The report was immediately picked up by the Congress and its spokespersons as proof that the investigation into Vadra was a "witch hunt" and a "conspiracy".

Meanwhile, Barkha Dutt – who frequently has to deal with vicious attacks from Modi supporters online – found herself in the unusual position of dealing with allegations of bias against the Congress.

NDTV then went on to report further on the Vadra investigation, claiming FirstPost had gotten the address of allegedly benami property wrong, and so was reporting on incorrect ownership details.

"To denounce any links to Mr Vadra, Congress spokespersons and supporters have been citing a media report which says UK land records do not show Mr Vadra, Mr Bhandari or any company linked to him as the owner of the home. However, that article does not use the address clearly mentioned in the investigation report submitted to the Finance Ministry: 12, Ellerton House, Bryanston Square, and therefore offers ownership records entirely unconnected to the government's inquiry."

On June 2, the Indian Express also put out a report saying that UK Land Registry records clearly show that the property in question was sold to a UAE-incorporated company in 2010 for around Rs 19 crore. This company is allegedly linked to Bhandari, the controversial arms dealer, who reportedly acknowledged receiving email from Vadra regarding the London property.

FirstPost has since doubled down on its report, with something of a technicality in defence of its story. It claimed that the address that NDTV had originally reported had not actually changed hands since 2005 – despite claims that the Bhandari-linked company bought it in 2010.

It also added this disclaimer.

"There are thousands of flats in London. Vadra may or may not have bought any or many of them. The FirstPost report was neither meant to be a clean chit to Vadra nor a rebuttal of reports and efforts of other media houses. It is to point out that if Indian authorities are looking for Vadra at 12 Ellerton House, Bryanson Square (with or without the ’11’ prefix), it’s likely they are knocking on the wrong door."

That is a lot less bellicose than its previous headline, saying Vadra "has nothing to do with shady London home deal".

From the looks of it, what seems to have happened is simple: NDTV managed to access investigation agency data regarding alleged Bhandari-Vadra emails, and so reported on the supposedly benami property sale. It's initial report gave the address as 12 Ellerton House, Bryanston Square.

FirstPost, as a fellow news organisation might expect to, looked up the ownership details of the address and found that it didn't tally with NDTV's report. What it didn't, or chose not to take into account, is that the details garnered from investigative agencies especially through access journalism is often imprecise.

Where NDTV reported 12 Ellerton House, Bryanston Square, it really meant Flat 12, 12 Bryanston Square, as it (and the Indian Express) subsequently reported and then reaffirmed through documents.

This became confusing because, indeed these are two different, but very similar sounding addresses: 12, Ellerton House, Bryanston Square and Flat 12, 12 Bryanston Square, as the UK government records show.

This vindicates NDTV, with its reporting about the allegedly benami deal, while FirstPost claimed that it pursued the address that NDTV first named. In the documents that FirstPost eventually published, however, it made a reference to Flat 12, Ellerton House in 11 Bryanston Square.

NDTV did not mention any number in Bryanston Square initially saying simply 12, Ellerton House Bryanston Square, but in a later piece added the exact address Flat 12, 12 Bryanston Square, as Dutt points out.

Subsequent reportage has made it clear which address is being referred to, and its alleged connection to the Bhandari-linked company.

Still, the unusual inversion of roles online – with NDTV being attacked by the Congress and FirstPost praised – led to some standard fare Twitter speculation.

Corrections & Clarifications: This article has been edited to reflect the exact addresses named by both FirstPost and NDTV in their initial reports and subsequent additions.