In March 2001, the website Tehelka broke Operation West End, the biggest sting operation and undercover news story in Indian journalism. Using spycams for the expose and masquerading as arms dealers, Tehelkaಥporters infiltrated the Indian government, bribed army officers, gave money to the president of the ruling party and the defence minister࣬ose colleague right in the defence ministerಥsidence. This eventually forced both the ministersꠠ resignations. In a rigorously researched and searing authentic account of the Tehelka expos頡nd its aftermath, Madhu Trehan does a forensic study of the imperatives at the root of it, the characters and heroes and villians of the Tehelka sting operation story, and of how the system got back: by obfuscating, by attempting to destroy Tehelka and its investors. In her book, Tehelka as Metaphor, Trehan shows how the government used instruments of democracy to destroy the investors without leaving any footprints. In the style of Rashomon, the Tehelka operation story is related by numerous participants of the same incidents and, of course, none of the stories tally.