FOCUS
WIKILEAKS & INDIA
J.SHRIYAN
"It means, he has a habit of reactively covering up allegations of corruption”.
This was The Hindu front page head line on 12th April 2011. It was a statement attributed to Julian Assange, the Editor-in- chief of Wikileaks. As I was reading the headline, I had absolutely no doubt whom was he referring to.
On 8th April, Mr.N. Ram, the Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu, had called on him with prior appointment for a tête-à-tête on the purported leaks of the cables from the U.S. embassy from India in particular, and its offices worldwide in general.
It is to the credit of The Hindu, for having published these India cables in its daily issues consecutively for some three weeks. These publications have been highly educative, on the way how things happen away from the public glare and audibility. Some may be the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth. Some may be half truth and some may be figments of imagination, but information and educative all the same. Surely these disclosures may not be gospel truths and need not be taken as thus. But surely they are indicative of where the wind is blowing, and have laid bare in the public domain, how some of our leading figures in public life think and act on diverse issues of national relevance, which hither to was unavailable in the public domain. By any stretch of imagination, it is indeed a signal service by The Hindu to the Indian public at large. It is indeed very praise worthy.
Coming back to the long front-page headline in The Hindu of 12th April, as I mentioned that its reference left me in no doubt, that Julian Assange was indeed referring to the worlds most educated, economist Prime Minster of India. That was the most devastating comment by anybody, anywhere on the persona of Dr Manmohan Singh, ever since he became the Prime Minister of world’s largest democracy.
As all Indians are privy to the knowledge that Singh was a reluctant politician, without, any allegation of whatever kind. He entered the cabinet of the first UPA government on 22nd May 2004, as Prime Minister on a very clean slate. Reams of paper were written about his blemishless and clean public image, so also about his apolitical nature. But the rough and tumble of India’s political culture has slowly but surely have degenerated the man in Dr Singh.
There was this Reader’s Digest compilation of most trusted public figures of India and Dr Manmohan Singh was ranked 7th overall, and called him the most trusted politician. But the question that was not answered was, what about Dr Manmohan Singh the Prime Minister. ‘As a Prime Minister, you belong to the whole country, not just to a political party. Your party affiliation should not come in the way of taking a considered and value based stand on issue on national relevance.’
Sometime last month, while speaking to state Chief Secretaries in New Delhi, Dr Singh had reportedly stated “Corruption dents India’s image, hampers good governance and need to be tackled boldly and quickly”. He spoke as the Prime Minister of India, and tried sending a serious and well meant message to all concerned. But what is the ground condition?
Sometime in Sept 2010, under advice from the government headed by Dr Singh, the Solicitor General of India. Goolam E Vahanvati told the Supreme Court ‘The Red Corner Notice was withdrawn a year ago. There is not a rubble of evidence to keep prolonging the case in the trial court. We have decided to withdraw all prosecution and close the case”. He was referring to Italian businessman fugitive Ottavio Quattrocchi. We are all privy to the knowledge that Bofors gun deal during Rajeev Gandhi regime was the single most high profile corruption tainted deal. The amount of bribe involved was Rs: 64 crores, which by to-day’s standard may not be exactly peanuts, but not a very big one by any standard. But in 1984, it was indeed a big one. In fact, Rajeev Gandhi lost power only because of Bofors scandal, and Italian Quattrocchi was a family friend and biggest bribe taker in this deal. No wonder BSP Supremo and UP Chief Minister cried hoarse, and justifiably so. While CBI is persuing cases against her, this Quattrocchi is allowed to go scot free only because of his links with the first political family of India. This is an open double standard in public life. Therefore the decision of the government of Prime Minister Singh to formally free the middleman Quattrocchi from any legal proceedings for his role in the Bofors gun deal in the early 80’s is indeed a huge black mark. Like one Mumbai based newspaper put it “Admittedly being a nominated PM Dr Singh might have found it hard not to carry out the wishes of his masters, but then a test of a real gentlemen, as against a mere time–server, lies in such difficult situations. Principled persons are expected not to compromise on fundamentals of Justice, Equity, Honesty etc., and are known to have sacrificed all material and worldly comforts for the sake of upholding higher standards. But unfortunately, Dr Singh all along has taken the path of least resistances when it came to carrying out the orders of his masters.” Thus unwittingly he too has become a party to the cover-up. So, isn’t Julian Assange repeating what the Mumbai paper has stated?! Although many Indian papers across India have, at times, did take this line of thinking, this is for the first time, that a high profile international website has given this kind of negative certificate.
While complimenting The Hindu and Indian people, he noted that “India has terrible corruption and something must be done about it and its encouraging to hear that so many people are now pushing strongly against it, including Anna Hazare, the Gandhi-ist”.
Continuing his talk to The Hindu, Assange reveals “India accounts for some of the highest amounts of deposits in Swiss Banks which must be questioned as to what that money is doing”.
Assange is a British subject, and is disturbed about this money stashed away in Swiss Bank. Our Prime Minister and our Finance Minister are in the meanwhile mouthing inanities, saying agreement about double taxation is being put in place and these agreements are making it difficult for the Indian authorities to disclose the names of account holders. In fact, on April 15, the central government of Dr Singh the PM and Pranab Mukherjee, the F.M., have reportedly declined to disclose in the Supreme court names of people who have stashed black money in foreign banks saying it is not possible to disclose information received from foreign governments under Double Taxation Avoidance agreement. According to press report, government has agreed to reveal the names of 6 persons having a/c with the bank in Liechtenstein. But the joke is, it is already availbale in the public domain, most of whom are trustees of Lilavathi Hospital in Bandra, Mumbai. To lend credibility to thier move, Finance Minister is preparing to make claim of income tax on these money held in Swiss Banks and trying to mislead the gullible public opinion, by saying government will recover this tax from these Swiss Bank a/c holders from India.
But what about the sums of the money? Isn’t it the Indian public money looted out of the system in some shady illegal deals? Finance Minister’s plan is to get only 30% as income tax to the exchequer and let the thief get away with 70% loot. Some private deal at work?! A kind of a quid-pro-quo?!
Assange talks about global black money or unaccounted money generation and its travelling to the Swiss Banks. Referring to the detention of Rudolf Elmer, who has claimed to have details in his possession of these bank a/cs, Assange tells The Hindu that “He is in a position where he has severely embarrassed the Swiss state, which gains nearly 50% of GDP from its banking”. According to him, Switzerland holds nearly 1/3 of all the worlds’ ill gotten dirty money which is privately owned. Thus, the power brokers the world over has used the opaque system within the Swiss state to retain their hold on this sleazy money, and Switzerland is lording it over this filthy empire to the detriment of governments of mostly poor countries. How-come global leaders are helpless in making the Swiss authorities to at least disclose the names of these secretive account holders?
For far too long Switzerland and its corrupt patrons had it very good. Its time they are made accountable. A tiny geographical land mass in the Alps cannot hold the whole civilised world to ransom.
Yes coming back to the Wikileaks’ Assange and the interlocutor N. Ram of The Hindu, here are two questions which needs reproduction along with the answers there to.
Q. In India, after the initial stunned reaction, the tone of the official response to our publication of the India Cables was set by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh questioning or disputing in Parliament the authenticity of the cables and what the U.S. Embassy and consulates were reporting back to the State Department. Here is what he actually said in the Lok Sabha, our House of Commons, on March 18. He said the government 'cannot confirm the veracity, contents or even the existence of such communication.' This seems to have set the Indian government apart, from the rest of the world’s governments. Have you come across this reaction anywhere else?
A. We have not come across this reaction and this reaction disturbed me. Because Hillary Clinton had been involved in informing the Indian government, in December (2010), as well as many other governments, that this was coming. There has been no question as to the credibility of any document we have ever published in the last four years, let alone the (U.S. Embassy) cables – which have been authenticated by the very aggressive action of the State Department towards us and by hundreds of journalists from the most reputable institutions across the world.
That is why I said, I find that statement a deliberate, knowing attempt to mislead the Indian population. And that is something which is quite concerning. Because that is not just an allegation, it is directly from Prime Minister Singh’s mouth and he knows better than to do that. While I have heard - I have no proof but the consensus seems to be that – he is not personally corrupt, here’s a clear attempt to cover up for the possible corruption of other people. Rather than simply playing it straight, which he should have done, and say, “Look, there are allegations. They are serious and we will investigate them and come to the truth of the matter and give a full report to the Parliament.”
I think if he had taken that approach, he would have been served a lot better. So he has acted against his own interests and acted against the interest of his party, which is odd. So I would suggest it means that he has a habit that he was following rather than thinking things through – and a habit of reactively covering up allegations of corruption.
On 17th March, as a sequel to The Hindu publication, parliament was rocked with the explosive exposure of Capt. Satish Sharma's assistant Narchiket Kapur showing an U. S. Embassy staff, on the eve of confidence vote on the Indo-US nuclear deal in 2008, chests containing some Rs 60 crores, being part of bigger fund, which party has collected, to purchase the support of MPs. Reportedly, aide also claimed that former MPs belonging to Rashtriya Lok Dal had already been paid Rs: 10 crore each to ensure they voted the right way on the floor of Loksabha. Wikileaks cable also informed that an attempt to buy Akali Dal MPs (8 votes) through Sardar Sant Chatwal, a controversial financier from the U.S., had ‘unfortunately did not workout’. And it was the same Chatwal who figured in the Padma awardees list in Jan. this year, which created a bit of furore. According to U.S. Embassy sources, which this cable is trying to put in public domain, even small planes and jets were spoken of as bribes by Commerce Minister Kamal Nath.
As was only expected opposition parties used the information to catch the government with their undergarments down. After persistent insistance by opposition, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh came to both the houses of Parliament to defend his government, or rather his Congress party that “No cash was given for votes”.
Referring to debate, the cable’s charge of a Congress Party worker's showing bundles of currency notes as bribe money to U.S. embassy staffer, he has reportedly stated “I would like, to make it clear once again that none from the Congress Party or the government indulged in any such unlawful act during the trust vote in 2008”. He insisted “We have neither involved in any such transactions nor authorised any one to indulge in such transaction”. The transformation of Dr Manmohan Singh, the economist bureaucrat, as a politician was complete. He did not blink while giving a certificate of 'No Wrong Doing' to his government and his party.
However it is interesting to note that former U.S Ambassador to India, David Mulford had reportedly stated sometime in March 2011, to put at rest any doubts on the veracity of the contents of these cables. He had said “The reports from the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi in general, are accurate reports!"
From the interiew that Times Now had recently with Wikileaks, Times of India, has published one explosive sentence attributed to Mr Assange "There is more Indian money in Swiss Banks than any other country", blowing the lid off the whole controversy on black money.
Here is another question and the answer there to.
Q. The India Cables have shown a nexus, sometimes unholy or dubious, between U.S. International policy and the interests of its big businesses, for example the Dow Chemical Company, or Boeing, or nuclear reactor suppliers. This nexus seems to be very evident in India as well. Do you think the publication of these cables will make a difference? Or is it something we have to live with, this nexus between powerful government policy and the interests of big business, in controversial areas?
A. Not all business is bad, obviously.Yes, I think big business are powerful and they are able to throw their weight around, in terms of the United States context, funneling money to congressional campaigns. The statistics for Washington is, 50 lobbyists per Congressman. So that’s an enormous amount of intellectual power being placed on each individual to manipulate them. Similar activities take place in other parts of the world where big companies, not just from the United States but from Russia and China and the United Kingdom specially, do try and manipulate and get inside levers of government.
What these cables do, is not stop that situation directly but make it absolutely clear that is going on.
Now it is absolutely clear how things happen beyond the prying eyes of the press, the activists and the people at large. Also clear are the way things are managed to the benefit of few at the cost of the nation and therefore the public. This has exposed the malpractices being practiced within the precincts of the offices and houses of people’s representatives and their influences peddling cronies, who live off the loot of the public money.
The path breaking efforts of the WIKILEAKS in bringing the sleazier side of the U.S. agenda driven politics, promoted at the cost of third world, is indeed a revolution of a kind. And The Hindu and its editorial board need to be congratulated for bringing this shady aspect of the world’s most powerful nation’s leadership in influencing course of events within India, so also for exposing systemic rot prevalent in the political life of the country. Therefore the relevance of WIKILEAKS vis-à-vis India is absolute. In fact, both WIKILEAKS and The Hindu should be nationally honoured for the yeoman service they rendered in public awareness.J.SHRIYAN
"It means, he has a habit of reactively covering up allegations of corruption”.
This was The Hindu front page head line on 12th April 2011. It was a statement attributed to Julian Assange, the Editor-in- chief of Wikileaks. As I was reading the headline, I had absolutely no doubt whom was he referring to.
On 8th April, Mr.N. Ram, the Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu, had called on him with prior appointment for a tête-à-tête on the purported leaks of the cables from the U.S. embassy from India in particular, and its offices worldwide in general.
It is to the credit of The Hindu, for having published these India cables in its daily issues consecutively for some three weeks. These publications have been highly educative, on the way how things happen away from the public glare and audibility. Some may be the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth. Some may be half truth and some may be figments of imagination, but information and educative all the same. Surely these disclosures may not be gospel truths and need not be taken as thus. But surely they are indicative of where the wind is blowing, and have laid bare in the public domain, how some of our leading figures in public life think and act on diverse issues of national relevance, which hither to was unavailable in the public domain. By any stretch of imagination, it is indeed a signal service by The Hindu to the Indian public at large. It is indeed very praise worthy.
Coming back to the long front-page headline in The Hindu of 12th April, as I mentioned that its reference left me in no doubt, that Julian Assange was indeed referring to the worlds most educated, economist Prime Minster of India. That was the most devastating comment by anybody, anywhere on the persona of Dr Manmohan Singh, ever since he became the Prime Minister of world’s largest democracy.
As all Indians are privy to the knowledge that Singh was a reluctant politician, without, any allegation of whatever kind. He entered the cabinet of the first UPA government on 22nd May 2004, as Prime Minister on a very clean slate. Reams of paper were written about his blemishless and clean public image, so also about his apolitical nature. But the rough and tumble of India’s political culture has slowly but surely have degenerated the man in Dr Singh.
There was this Reader’s Digest compilation of most trusted public figures of India and Dr Manmohan Singh was ranked 7th overall, and called him the most trusted politician. But the question that was not answered was, what about Dr Manmohan Singh the Prime Minister. ‘As a Prime Minister, you belong to the whole country, not just to a political party. Your party affiliation should not come in the way of taking a considered and value based stand on issue on national relevance.’
Sometime last month, while speaking to state Chief Secretaries in New Delhi, Dr Singh had reportedly stated “Corruption dents India’s image, hampers good governance and need to be tackled boldly and quickly”. He spoke as the Prime Minister of India, and tried sending a serious and well meant message to all concerned. But what is the ground condition?
Sometime in Sept 2010, under advice from the government headed by Dr Singh, the Solicitor General of India. Goolam E Vahanvati told the Supreme Court ‘The Red Corner Notice was withdrawn a year ago. There is not a rubble of evidence to keep prolonging the case in the trial court. We have decided to withdraw all prosecution and close the case”. He was referring to Italian businessman fugitive Ottavio Quattrocchi. We are all privy to the knowledge that Bofors gun deal during Rajeev Gandhi regime was the single most high profile corruption tainted deal. The amount of bribe involved was Rs: 64 crores, which by to-day’s standard may not be exactly peanuts, but not a very big one by any standard. But in 1984, it was indeed a big one. In fact, Rajeev Gandhi lost power only because of Bofors scandal, and Italian Quattrocchi was a family friend and biggest bribe taker in this deal. No wonder BSP Supremo and UP Chief Minister cried hoarse, and justifiably so. While CBI is persuing cases against her, this Quattrocchi is allowed to go scot free only because of his links with the first political family of India. This is an open double standard in public life. Therefore the decision of the government of Prime Minister Singh to formally free the middleman Quattrocchi from any legal proceedings for his role in the Bofors gun deal in the early 80’s is indeed a huge black mark. Like one Mumbai based newspaper put it “Admittedly being a nominated PM Dr Singh might have found it hard not to carry out the wishes of his masters, but then a test of a real gentlemen, as against a mere time–server, lies in such difficult situations. Principled persons are expected not to compromise on fundamentals of Justice, Equity, Honesty etc., and are known to have sacrificed all material and worldly comforts for the sake of upholding higher standards. But unfortunately, Dr Singh all along has taken the path of least resistances when it came to carrying out the orders of his masters.” Thus unwittingly he too has become a party to the cover-up. So, isn’t Julian Assange repeating what the Mumbai paper has stated?! Although many Indian papers across India have, at times, did take this line of thinking, this is for the first time, that a high profile international website has given this kind of negative certificate.
While complimenting The Hindu and Indian people, he noted that “India has terrible corruption and something must be done about it and its encouraging to hear that so many people are now pushing strongly against it, including Anna Hazare, the Gandhi-ist”.
Continuing his talk to The Hindu, Assange reveals “India accounts for some of the highest amounts of deposits in Swiss Banks which must be questioned as to what that money is doing”.
Assange is a British subject, and is disturbed about this money stashed away in Swiss Bank. Our Prime Minister and our Finance Minister are in the meanwhile mouthing inanities, saying agreement about double taxation is being put in place and these agreements are making it difficult for the Indian authorities to disclose the names of account holders. In fact, on April 15, the central government of Dr Singh the PM and Pranab Mukherjee, the F.M., have reportedly declined to disclose in the Supreme court names of people who have stashed black money in foreign banks saying it is not possible to disclose information received from foreign governments under Double Taxation Avoidance agreement. According to press report, government has agreed to reveal the names of 6 persons having a/c with the bank in Liechtenstein. But the joke is, it is already availbale in the public domain, most of whom are trustees of Lilavathi Hospital in Bandra, Mumbai. To lend credibility to thier move, Finance Minister is preparing to make claim of income tax on these money held in Swiss Banks and trying to mislead the gullible public opinion, by saying government will recover this tax from these Swiss Bank a/c holders from India.
But what about the sums of the money? Isn’t it the Indian public money looted out of the system in some shady illegal deals? Finance Minister’s plan is to get only 30% as income tax to the exchequer and let the thief get away with 70% loot. Some private deal at work?! A kind of a quid-pro-quo?!
Assange talks about global black money or unaccounted money generation and its travelling to the Swiss Banks. Referring to the detention of Rudolf Elmer, who has claimed to have details in his possession of these bank a/cs, Assange tells The Hindu that “He is in a position where he has severely embarrassed the Swiss state, which gains nearly 50% of GDP from its banking”. According to him, Switzerland holds nearly 1/3 of all the worlds’ ill gotten dirty money which is privately owned. Thus, the power brokers the world over has used the opaque system within the Swiss state to retain their hold on this sleazy money, and Switzerland is lording it over this filthy empire to the detriment of governments of mostly poor countries. How-come global leaders are helpless in making the Swiss authorities to at least disclose the names of these secretive account holders?
For far too long Switzerland and its corrupt patrons had it very good. Its time they are made accountable. A tiny geographical land mass in the Alps cannot hold the whole civilised world to ransom.
Yes coming back to the Wikileaks’ Assange and the interlocutor N. Ram of The Hindu, here are two questions which needs reproduction along with the answers there to.
Q. In India, after the initial stunned reaction, the tone of the official response to our publication of the India Cables was set by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh questioning or disputing in Parliament the authenticity of the cables and what the U.S. Embassy and consulates were reporting back to the State Department. Here is what he actually said in the Lok Sabha, our House of Commons, on March 18. He said the government 'cannot confirm the veracity, contents or even the existence of such communication.' This seems to have set the Indian government apart, from the rest of the world’s governments. Have you come across this reaction anywhere else?
A. We have not come across this reaction and this reaction disturbed me. Because Hillary Clinton had been involved in informing the Indian government, in December (2010), as well as many other governments, that this was coming. There has been no question as to the credibility of any document we have ever published in the last four years, let alone the (U.S. Embassy) cables – which have been authenticated by the very aggressive action of the State Department towards us and by hundreds of journalists from the most reputable institutions across the world.
That is why I said, I find that statement a deliberate, knowing attempt to mislead the Indian population. And that is something which is quite concerning. Because that is not just an allegation, it is directly from Prime Minister Singh’s mouth and he knows better than to do that. While I have heard - I have no proof but the consensus seems to be that – he is not personally corrupt, here’s a clear attempt to cover up for the possible corruption of other people. Rather than simply playing it straight, which he should have done, and say, “Look, there are allegations. They are serious and we will investigate them and come to the truth of the matter and give a full report to the Parliament.”
I think if he had taken that approach, he would have been served a lot better. So he has acted against his own interests and acted against the interest of his party, which is odd. So I would suggest it means that he has a habit that he was following rather than thinking things through – and a habit of reactively covering up allegations of corruption.
On 17th March, as a sequel to The Hindu publication, parliament was rocked with the explosive exposure of Capt. Satish Sharma's assistant Narchiket Kapur showing an U. S. Embassy staff, on the eve of confidence vote on the Indo-US nuclear deal in 2008, chests containing some Rs 60 crores, being part of bigger fund, which party has collected, to purchase the support of MPs. Reportedly, aide also claimed that former MPs belonging to Rashtriya Lok Dal had already been paid Rs: 10 crore each to ensure they voted the right way on the floor of Loksabha. Wikileaks cable also informed that an attempt to buy Akali Dal MPs (8 votes) through Sardar Sant Chatwal, a controversial financier from the U.S., had ‘unfortunately did not workout’. And it was the same Chatwal who figured in the Padma awardees list in Jan. this year, which created a bit of furore. According to U.S. Embassy sources, which this cable is trying to put in public domain, even small planes and jets were spoken of as bribes by Commerce Minister Kamal Nath.
As was only expected opposition parties used the information to catch the government with their undergarments down. After persistent insistance by opposition, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh came to both the houses of Parliament to defend his government, or rather his Congress party that “No cash was given for votes”.
Referring to debate, the cable’s charge of a Congress Party worker's showing bundles of currency notes as bribe money to U.S. embassy staffer, he has reportedly stated “I would like, to make it clear once again that none from the Congress Party or the government indulged in any such unlawful act during the trust vote in 2008”. He insisted “We have neither involved in any such transactions nor authorised any one to indulge in such transaction”. The transformation of Dr Manmohan Singh, the economist bureaucrat, as a politician was complete. He did not blink while giving a certificate of 'No Wrong Doing' to his government and his party.
However it is interesting to note that former U.S Ambassador to India, David Mulford had reportedly stated sometime in March 2011, to put at rest any doubts on the veracity of the contents of these cables. He had said “The reports from the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi in general, are accurate reports!"
From the interiew that Times Now had recently with Wikileaks, Times of India, has published one explosive sentence attributed to Mr Assange "There is more Indian money in Swiss Banks than any other country", blowing the lid off the whole controversy on black money.
Here is another question and the answer there to.
Q. The India Cables have shown a nexus, sometimes unholy or dubious, between U.S. International policy and the interests of its big businesses, for example the Dow Chemical Company, or Boeing, or nuclear reactor suppliers. This nexus seems to be very evident in India as well. Do you think the publication of these cables will make a difference? Or is it something we have to live with, this nexus between powerful government policy and the interests of big business, in controversial areas?
A. Not all business is bad, obviously.Yes, I think big business are powerful and they are able to throw their weight around, in terms of the United States context, funneling money to congressional campaigns. The statistics for Washington is, 50 lobbyists per Congressman. So that’s an enormous amount of intellectual power being placed on each individual to manipulate them. Similar activities take place in other parts of the world where big companies, not just from the United States but from Russia and China and the United Kingdom specially, do try and manipulate and get inside levers of government.
What these cables do, is not stop that situation directly but make it absolutely clear that is going on.
Now it is absolutely clear how things happen beyond the prying eyes of the press, the activists and the people at large. Also clear are the way things are managed to the benefit of few at the cost of the nation and therefore the public. This has exposed the malpractices being practiced within the precincts of the offices and houses of people’s representatives and their influences peddling cronies, who live off the loot of the public money.
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