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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee extended a hand of partnership to the opposition Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) to push through financial reforms. Mukherjee, who was addressing industry concerns over flailing pace of economic reforms, after the budget, said he is willing to meet other parties and governments “halfway.” “It is not that we have back-tracked on […]
The following is the full text of Arvind Kejriwal’s letter to the followers of India Against Corruption and Anna Hazare in which he tries to answer those who have opposed Anna’s move to enter the political arena. Dear friends, There are mixed reactions at the end of Anshan. The general populace has welcomed our initiative […]
A 2009 US diplomatic cable leaked by Wikileaks has exposed how Pakistani leaders had to practically beg the US ambassador for money to carry out basic functions such as providing education and drinking water to its people last year. The cable written by US ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson shows Pakistani finance minister Shaukat Tarin […]
Anna Hazare’s broad-based anti-corruption alliance ‘India Against Corruption’ seems all set to form a new political party after Anna’s supporters voted overwhelmingly in favor of the option, according to initial trends. Anna Hazare himself said he was in agreement with the requests of his followers. “I will not be part of any party, but I […]
Finally, the numbers from the crucial Neyyatinkara bypoll are in and both the Congress and BJP have reason to smile, while the Left parties are reeling from the shock. Neyyattinkara bypoll was crucial as a Left win there would have reduced the Congress-led UDF government’s majority in the state assembly to just 1 member and […]
Pranab Mukherjee may have just been chosen as UPA’s candidate for the Indian Presidency, but his ambition and rise was noted very early on by American diplomats in India. A cable, released by Wikileaks, from the American Ambassador to India David Mulford in June 2005 to the then U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has an […]
Indian enterprise IT spending across all industry markets is forecast to reach Rs 1,910 billion (Rs 1.91 lakh crore or $37 billion) this year, a 16.4 percent jump from last year rupee terms. The growth will be less in dollar terms due to the 15-20% fall in rupee value this year, compared to the last. […]
