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Thread on journalist Rajeev Sharma who has been arrested by the Delhi Police for spying for China.
1. In 2011 I started writing for Russia Beyond, a Russian government media outlet. 90% of my stories were on defence. https://trunicle.com/rajeev-sharma-a-freelance-journalist-who-also-wrote-for-the-quint-arrested-for-spying-for-china-has-china-funded-a-few-agenda-based-news-portals-in-india?fbclid=IwAR3TkS-otOszuwBwN4V6rszBPp58kmFpwpl68DPiAVRJLlKNqz9TXolgChI
1. In 2011 I started writing for Russia Beyond, a Russian government media outlet. 90% of my stories were on defence. https://trunicle.com/rajeev-sharma-a-freelance-journalist-who-also-wrote-for-the-quint-arrested-for-spying-for-china-has-china-funded-a-few-agenda-based-news-portals-in-india?fbclid=IwAR3TkS-otOszuwBwN4V6rszBPp58kmFpwpl68DPiAVRJLlKNqz9TXolgChI
2. My stories got a lot of traction in the global media and think tanks. But for me that was just a side dish. Main course was public who loved my defence stories. Naturally, my column caused a lot of heartburn in Lutyens media.
3. There were deadbeats like Jyoti Malhotra who wrote a couple of articles and were unceremoniously kicked out by the Russians who realised that these Lutyens journalists were pathetic at their work. Several Lutyens looters begged RBTH for a regular column.
4. I enjoyed a fantastic rapport with my Russian editors. They would keep me informed of Lutyens creeps approaching them, saying they would write better articles for RBTH than Rakesh Krishnan Simha.
5. The Russians were shocked and amused by their pitch: “Get rid of Rakesh. I have inside connections. I know Sonia Gandhi personally. I know the defence secretary. I know the IAF chief. I can give you exclusives. Etc”
6. Among such characters was Rajeev Sharma. The Russian editors described him as one of the shadiest writers to have ever approached them. He claimed direct links in the Defence Ministry. His offer was: Give me guaranteed 4 articles a month and I’ll give you Pulitzer stuff. 
7. They decided to test him out and threw a few bones in his direction. Each of his stories was cringeworthy. Based on a single alleged quote from a “senior defence ministry bureaucrat”, he would spin a story which he would flog as an exclusive.
8. I asked them why they allowed Sharma to tarnish RBTH’s standing by letting him write crazy stuff that even NDTV wouldn’t publish. They said, just like you guys in India have anti national journalists, we too have JNU type fools who don’t care about Russia’s reputation.
9. There was one particular editor who allowed these Lutyens to write for RBTH and since the Russians worked through consensus they tolerated liars like Rajeev Sharma.
10. Rajeev Sharma would write one thing in the Russian media and the exact opposite in Global Times. For instance, he wrote a story for RBTH on why Russia was India's best defence partner. Days later he spun the same story as a negative. 
https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/799919.shtml#.UmeIjXCmgYU
https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/799919.shtml#.UmeIjXCmgYU
11. My January 2014 email to RBTH: "Re our conversation, links to Sharma's stories where he runs with the hares and hunts with the hounds. How can anyone have any credibility if they tweak the same story to fit into the ideological requirements of different news outlets."
12. RBTH told Rajeev Sharma to bugger off. But like a weed that won't die, he sold his snake oil to Moscow based RT where he wrote a few stories based on fake quotes from the MEA or the Defence Ministry.
13. This really pissed off the Russians. One of the editors emailed me after this: "I have been assured that the embassy will talk to RT about that scumbag... He'll never be able to set foot in Russian territory either."
14. Rajeev Sharma was always referred to as either a "scamster" or "scumbag" by people who dealt with him. After becoming persona non grata in Russia, he sold his snake oil to First Post, a den of liberal, secular and anti Indian journalists.
15. And that's where he may have been recruited by the Chinese government intelligence agencies. His sources were weak as they were most likely low to mid level Defence Ministry and MEA bureaucrats. But even such people have access to classified documents of their higher ups.
16. During my early journalism years I knew the top bureaucrats often left documents on their desks or cabinets when they went out for lunch or a quick meeting, and their peons had full access to these documents. Rajeev Sharma was likely using similar contacts to acquire secrets.
17. Masquerading as a journalist,
Rajeev Sharma got access to enter various ministries and make contact with (probably unsuspecting) bureaucrats who supplied him with official secrets that he passed on to his Chinese handlers.
Rajeev Sharma got access to enter various ministries and make contact with (probably unsuspecting) bureaucrats who supplied him with official secrets that he passed on to his Chinese handlers.
18. But Rajeev Sharma is most likely a bottom feeder. The real heavyweights of espionage are likely to be people like Shekhar Gupta, N.Ram, Sitamaram Yechury, Brinda Karat and Rahul Gandhi who have much greater access to official secrets.
19. Remember the Rafale document that The Hindu procured and brazenly published? It had markings and notes by a hierarchy of senior bureaucrats. You can imagine why former KGB general Oleg Kalugin once said, "India leaked like a sieve. The entire country was up for sale."
20. Spies like Rajeev Sharma need to be sentenced to life in prison without parole. They should not be given Mickey Mouse sentences like 6-8 years with parole in 3 years. Like termites, traitors destroy the country from within. They pose a greater threat than external enemy.
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