Like many citizens of this country, I was shocked to wake up on Sunday morning and find that the Government had lathi-charged what I thought was a rather harmless satyagrah going on in Ramlila grounds. Like most of my fellow-citizens, I was quick to condemn the violation of our constitutional right to peaceful agitation — […]
Israel felt that a BJP government showed more enthusiasm in advancing mutual co-operation between India and Israel, compared to the Congress-led UPA government, going by a cable released by Wikileaks. According to it, the then Deputy Director General for Asia and the Pacific with Isreal foreign ministry, Ruth Kahanoff, felt that the [Congress-led] government was […]
The US State Department was concerned about the terrorist-charities increasingly taking over the functions that should ideally be carried out by the Pakistani government. In a cable written on 30 December 2009, the US State Department urged the US ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson to convey its worries over the development to the local government. […]
Anna Hazare, the 71-year-old Gandhian has said the Janlokpal movement will support Baba Ramdev and his agitation as long as his credentials remain as strong as they are now. His comments have come as many, including some who support Anna Hazare, have characterized the Baba as someone on the political right — alongside the Rashtriya […]
Pakistan diverted most of the money it received for counter-insurgency operations from the US to non-military uses, the country’s then finance minister Shaukat Tarin told Anne Patterson, the US ambassador to Pakistan in late 2009. In a US diplomatic cable released by Wikileaks, Tarin also requested Patterson to share how much money the US pays […]
The US ambassador to Pakistan, Anne Patterson, argued strongly with her Government to sell Pakistan more F-16 fighter jets to, ironically, prevent a nuclear war between India and Pakistan. Patterson, in a 2009 cable, pointed out that Pakistan is likely to use Nuclear weapons against India in a matter a few days if the two […]
Many oil-rich Gulf states, ostensibly allied with the United States, have a policy of turning a blind eye to the terror planning and financing activities on their territories with Kuwait and Qatar being the worst offenders, according to a US diplomatic cable. Saudi Arabia has done the most to disrupt terror networks, particularly the al […]
A prominent CPI leader from the Muslim community, M Rahmatullah, has quit the Left and joined Congress ally Indian Union Muslim League, accusing the Communists of losing touch with the minorities. Rahmattullah also accused the CPI of being part of a “new politics” that neglected the Christian and Muslim minorities of Kerala — an obvious […]
UP Chief Minister Mayawati has hit back strongly at the comments made by Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi in Varanasi today and yesterday. In a strong, point-by-point statement read out by the UP cabinet secretary Shashank Shekhar — the top state bureaucrat — Mayawati urged Sonia Gandhi to take her concerns for loss […]
A late 2008 diplomatic cable from the Islamabad embassy of the US has shed new light on the thinking inside the Pakistani establishment about Kashmir, Balochistan and the bombing of Indian embassy in Kabul in the same year. According to the cable, which described a high-level meeting between the US Assistant Secretary for South and […]
Indian public opinion would force the Indian government to take military action against Pakistan in case of another attack like Mumbai, home minister P Chidambaram told the Americans in 2009, according to leaked US diplomatic cables. Chidambaram also blamed Bangladesh and Myanmar for providing sanctuary to insurgents in the North East and called Myanmar “totally […]
India’s defence minister AK Antony has reacted to the Wikileaks’ revelation that parts of the Pakistani government were in touch with the terror groups who bombed the Indian embassy of Kabul in 2008. Antony said the biggest hurdle to better relations between India and Pakistan was the links between high officials in Pakistan and terror […]
The CNN-IBN channel has claimed that the National Commission for Women — a statutory rights body — has prepared a report in which it points to women being stripped and people being burnt by Uttar Pradesh policemen during the recent farmers’ agitation. Claiming to have seen the NCW report prepared after the Commission’s visit eight […]
One of the most recent US diplomatic cables released to be released by Wikileaks has pointed to India’s deep ambitions in Afghanistan. The cable, written as a ‘scene-setter’ for the visit of influential US Senator John Kerry in February last year noted that Indians were restrained in their military co-operation with Afghanistan only because of […]
Officials of the United Arab Emirates, home to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, said the tiny country had to “understand the needs” of its bigger neighbors like Iran and Saudi Arabia to survive and can only go so far in helping the US in the region. A cable leaked by Wikileaks reports the UAE Central Bank […]
Many senior Pakistani military officers seemed out of touch with Western reality and are steeped in myths — particularly anti-American ones — while being in awe of the Chinese, according to the experiences of a US Army Colonel who was studying there. Colonel Michael Schleicher, who was attending a senior level course at Pakistan’s prestigious […]
The wikileaks cable has given a rare glimpse of the hard-nosed practicality of Pakistani administrators. Speaking to the Bryan Hunt, Principal Officer at the US Consulate in Lahore, Shahbaz Sharif, chief minister of the Punjab province, even joked about using ‘long beards’ — a sign of devotion — to charm the people. Sharif was talking […]
J Jayalalitha, who is being sworn in as Tamil Nadu’s new chief minister, is unlikely to join the Congress-led UPA at the Centre any time soon, according to sources in Chennai. While Sonia Gandhi has already invited the AIADMK supremo for ‘breakfast’ and congratulated her on her victory over Congress ally DMK, the feisty former-actress […]
The state elections of 2011 has been remarkable for a variety of reasons — the fall of a 34-year old Communist government in West Bengal, the resounding signal sent by the Tamil Nadu electorate that corruption will not be condoned and the not-quite-there victory of the Congress in Kerala. While the first two have been […]
On the second day of his official tour of Afghanistan, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sought to reassure the Afghani lawmakers that India did not want to ‘impose’ its views on the country, and was interested only in ‘friendship.’ In his brief address to the join session of the two houses of Afghani Parliament, Singh mentioned […]
