Naxalism in India is unlikely to abate any time soon because the Indian government is not willing to take the tough steps to address the concerns of the poor and the marginalized, wrote the then US ambassador David Mulford in a 2005 cable released by Wikileaks. “Indian economic development has missed large portions of the […]
The full text of the Wikileaks cable talking about Rahul Gandhi’s initial hiccups 1. (C) Summary: Rahul Gandhi, the heir apparent of the Gandhi family dynasty, has made a number of gaffes, suggesting an uneven start to his active political career. During a series of “”roadshows”” meant to jump-start the Congress campaign in ongoing Uttar […]
The Congress Party’s swerve towards populism, as exemplified its ‘aam admi’ campaign and a flurry of schemes such as the 100-day employment guarantee scheme paradoxically owe its origin to the BJP’s own failures, Goeffrey Pyatt, the in-charge at the US embassy in Delhi pointed out in 2006. Pyatt was quick to spot the decisive move […]
Full text of Ambassador David Mulford’s 2005 cable on the ‘Congress Culture’ SUBJECT: CONGRESS CULTURE DEFINES SONIA GANDHI’S ROLE Classified By: DCM Robert O. Blake, Jr. for Reasons 1.4 (B, D) 1.(C) Summary: Since the Congress-dominated government has been in power, there have been widespread allegations by the opposition BJP and media commentators that party […]
Meeting Lalu Prasad Yadav, the then railway minister, was an “unforgettable experience” for the then US Ambassador to India, David Mulford, according to a cable released by Wikileaks. Mulford, who described Lalu as “as one of the most savvy, colorful, grassroots politicians in India,” however, was disappointed by the rather ‘serious’ Lalu that he encountered. […]
In 2005 immediately after his visit to Pakistan Senior Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) leader,Lal Krishna Advani’s was on the verge of being sidelined,actually he was pushed to the corner. The reason was his charitable remarks on Jinnah in which he described him a secular leader. The Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh(RSS),the parent organization of the BJP, reacted […]
Yet another Wikileaks cable focusing on the personality of Rahul Gandhi has the potential to stir trouble for the grand old party of India. Showing the distance traveled by Rahul Gandhi in five years, the cable expressed widespread disappointment at the young Gandhi’s political and social skills in 2005. Known to be an introvert, the […]
The US ambassador David Mulford criticised the Congress government for making its bureaucracy more “difficult to deal with” than it was during the Vajpayee years. Mulford, who felt that “the Nehru dynasty needs to become more like the Tata dynasty,” criticised Manmohan government’s “Brezhnev-era controls on its people of which Indira Gandhi would have approved.” […]
Watch out of Pranab Mukherjee’s Bengali accent — this was the warning from the US embassy Delhi to their headquarters in Washington just before the then defence minister was to visit the country. The detailed biography of Pranab Mukherjee, India’s current finance minister, also reveals the man behind the persona and comments on his tiff […]
The US embassy, which had generally proven itself a capable and astute observer of Indian politics, proved just how disconnected the embassy officials were in their assessment of Narendra Modi. In cables sent immediately after the US refused visa to the Gujarat Chief minister in 2005, the embassy is shown to be in touch with […]
Warning against ‘agents of the Congress and the BJP’, the Aam Aadmi Party has called upon social activist Anna Hazare to give up his fast and join the electoral movement. “While expressing our full support for the cause for which Anna is fasting, we call upon him to give up his fast and join the […]
India’s Home Minister P Chidambaram felt a pang of guilt at trying to ‘usurp’ law and order responsibilities from the state governments through the formation of the National Intelligence Agency, according to the latest cable leaked by Wikileaks. According to the cable written two years ago, American officials said Chidambaram felt considerable trepidation and doubts […]
Peter Burleigh, the former interim ambassador to India, was much impressed with Rahul Gandhi whom he called a “young man in a hurry.” Burleigh, who met Rahul in 2009 after a “long-standing request for an appointment,” dismissed the idea that the Gandhi scion was a “dilettante” (amateur) and was impressed with his party-building ideas. “Gandhi […]
In what has to be the biggest Wikileaks revelation so far to hit the government, a cable written just before the 2008 trust motion against government gave lurid details of bribing of MPs. Here is the extract: “On July 16, PolCouns [Political Counsel of the US Embassy] met with Captain Satish Sharma, a Congress Party […]
Santosh Koli, one of the 11 Aam Admi Party candidate for the Seemapuri assembly constituency in Delhi, has recovered from her critical condition after an accident last week. Koli and her co-worker were hit by a car on their way to their office a week ago. AAP said Koli, a long time member of Arvind […]
How much does Facebook care about Freedom of Expression? This is the question a group of liberals in the southern Indian state of Kerala are pondering over after their ‘Free Thinkers’ group has been ‘made unavailable’ by Facebook repeatedly. The group was among the top 20 or so from India until it was blocked by […]
The tussle between the Centre and the DMK over the Sri Lanka Tamils issue is fast turning nasty, if one reads between the lines of home minister P Chidambaram’s response to DMK’s move to withdraw support to the central government late yesterday. In a statement that contained as many hints as information, Chidambaram today said […]
Giving into a long-time demand from users, Google News has now enabled users to totally filter out, or ‘ban’, news sources that they don’t like. The feature, introduced without any fanfare, works using a ‘slider’ system for signed-in users, and can be accessed by clicking on the ‘gear wheel’ icon on the top right of […]
The average amount spent by an Indian has gone up by 66% in rural areas 70% in urban areas — with Keralites being the “richest” among the big states, according to the results of the last year’s expenditure survey the Government of India’s National Sample Survey Office (NSSO). The average (per head) expenditure figures are […]
Arvind Kejriwal’s party politics is going to be a mix of idealism, populism, socialism and perhaps a few impractical, if well-intentioned, ideas. Kejriwal’s India Against Corruption unveiled their new party manifesto in Delhi today, highlighting eight main goals and demands for the new party. The eight demands are as follows – 1) A more direct […]
