This is the second part of the biographies gleaned from the Guantanamo prison records leaked by Wikileaks today. They show, up and close, how many young men decided to take up arms for their religion, how they were facilitated by religious teachers etc.. However, it must be remembered that the histories are largely based on […]
Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chawan flatly blamed ‘outsiders’ for “instigating” trouble at Jaitapur, the site of a proposed Nuclear plant by French company Areva. Chawan said the dangers from the 10,000 megawatt nuclear plant have been exaggerated by those with vested interests and those who are ideologically opposed to all nuclear power. “The agitations are […]
Darjeeling born and Harvard educated Tibetan leader Lobsang Sangey has become the new Prime Minister of the Tibetan government in exile. The result for the elections of the 15th Parliament in exile was announced today in Dharamshala, the capital of the Tibetan government in exile. . For the first time the role of the prime […]
The second ‘Freedom on the Net’ (FOTN) report by the Washington-based Freedom Institute has expressed concern over the decreasing freedom of expression on the Internet in India. The Institute, which put India in the company of states like China, Egypt and Iran which saw a deterioration of freedom of expression on the Internet since the […]
A December 2006 US diplomatic cable leaked by Wikileaks has given valuable insights into what the Americans, at least the then US ambassador David Mulford, viewed as India’s role in the emerging political scenario in Asia. Not only did Mulford see India as a counterweight to China, “which it can never match,” but he also […]
We’ve all heard of newspapers coming out with April Fool’s stories, but a cable leaked by Wikileaks reveals that even the dour diplomats have a funny bone they let out once in a year. The cable, reproduced in entirety below, was authored by the American Embassy in charge Steven White on April 1, 2008 and […]
Despite humoring the US concerns on Iran when discussing matters like nuclear proliferation, India very much continued to be a ‘behind-the-scenes’ friend to Iran and Myanmar, according to the latest US cables leaked by Wikileaks. According to the late 2006 cable sent from USA’s Finnish embassy in Helsinki, Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh was very […]
The latest release by whisleblower organization Wikileaks — prisoner stories from the Guantenamo Bay has shed light into the role played by Pakistan in training Taliban militants. Wikileaks started releasing hundreds of prisoner files from the controversial prison set up by the US after it started its attack on Afghanistan ten years ago. “Detainee attended […]
Three years after the riots of 2002, Michael S Owen, the US Consul General in Mumbai, gave a vivid description of Gujarat reminding readers of Akira Kurosawa’s classic, Rashomon. While NGOs and minority representatives insisted the presence of a ‘communalizing’ government, business leaders and government officials portrayed a picture of normalcy and harmony. In the […]
India’s old-world and “capacity-constrained” bureaucracy is the biggest impediment to improving relations its relationship with the US, US embassy officials told Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a briefing paper prepared for her July 2009 visit. According to the Peter Burleigh, the in-charge of the American Embassy in New Delhi, even as the defence forces […]
India looked with suspicion at China’s establishment of Naval bases along the African coast in the name of fighting pirates, and felt the US climbdown over the USS ‘Impeccable’ incident of 2008 was unhelpful. The USS Impeccable, an unarmed surveillance ship of the US Navy, was repeatedly harassed by Chinese naval and other ships and […]
Indian Government had lost all hope of ever seeing the Indo-Iranian gas pipeline come into existence, but kept up the pretense of negotiations to keep Muslims and the Left happy, according to a US assessment. According to a cable sent in early 2007, the ministry of petroleum and natural gas headed by Murli Deora (described […]
The Mumbai Consultate and New Delhi embassy of the US Government were extremely concerned at the use of an ‘American’ hotel in Dubai for the “brazen” wedding of Dawood Ibrahim in late 2005. The US officials in India asked for action against the US-based Hyatt group for letting the wedding take place at the hotel […]
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 […]
