Wikileaks cash for votes allegations implicate India’s Congress
India’s ruling Congress party offered cash for votes to pass a crucial 2008 confidence vote in parliament, a secret U.S. state cable released on Thursday said, embroiling Manmohan Singh’s beleaguered government in yet another corruption scandal that risks further opposition attacks on the graft-smeared coalition.
The secret U.S. state department cable obtained by WikiLeaks and published by The Hindu newspaper on Thursday details a conversation between a senior Congress party member and a U.S. Embassy official surrounding the payment of almost $9 million by a government facing a crucial confidence vote to members of a regional political party to secure their support.
While the cable could not be independently verified by Reuters, its contents threaten to expose illegal practices that many fear are part and parcel of Indian politics.
Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj, who has in recent months led a scathing attack on the Congress party-led coalition government for failing to tackle corruption in India, posted on Twitter: “The wikileaks details in today’s Hindu about payoffs to MPs are shocking. I will raise this issue in Parliament today.”
Both houses of parliament were adjourned after 30 minutes on Thursday after uproar over the cable’s contents.
The cable details a conversation between an aide of Satish Sharma, Congress party MP and close associate of party chief Sonia Gandhi, and U.S. Charge d’Affaires Steven White in which the aide states that four MPs belonging to the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) party had been paid 100 million rupees ($2.2 million) each in order to secure their support for the government in a tight confidence vote over the Congress party’s support of a nuclear deal between India and the U.S.
White, who authored the secret cable, described how Embassy staff were shown two chests containing 500-600 million rupees ($11-13 million) that had been earmarked for “use as pay-offs”.
Obama in the White House – will he deliver?
Barack Obama takes over as the 44th U.S. President riding the optimism of millions of people and inheriting a recession and two wars that will test his skills.
Hopes are high the 47-year-old can conjure up a rescue that will jolt the world’s biggest economy back to life and contain the financial crisis ravaging global markets.
As far as India is concerned, there are apprehensions the Obama administration may place curbs on its outsourcing industry, ban any future nuclear tests and resurrect the Kashmir question.
Some have already questioned Obama’s reported plans to appoint a South Asia envoy.
And the Asia Society has laid out a blueprint for an expanded India-U.S. relationship.
What can India expect from the new Obama administration? Will the first African-American to become U.S. president usher in a new era for the country and for U.S-India relations?
May be too many pulls and pushes, too many lobbyists, too much too soon. Wish all this wont make him “One of the Same”.
If he had proceeded an inquiry on the earlier admin on lapses, omissions & commissions he may have made them realize their folly and he could have got the time to concentrate on shaping a new future. May be as ordinary world citizen we cannot know the depth of dungeons & dragons in the powerline map.
Obama or McCain – who is better for India?
Like much of the world waiting to find out who leads the United States as its president for the next four years, India too looks askance at the mother of all elections.
While some believe India-U.S. relations have evolved to a strategic level where it does not matter who is at the helm of affairs, a debate rages on whether Obama or McCain will be good for the South Asia region, and India in specific.
As in the U.S., in India the balance seems to tilt in favour of Obama. His backers say he will be a welcome change from the stifling neoconservatism of the Bush administration and its heavy-breathing belligerence.
The Times of India newspaper says: “…a McCain win will result in a broad continuation of Bush administration policies…Beyond that, US-India ties, at least from Washington’s perspective, would continue to be largely security driven, subject to conservative impulses arising from fears of an extremist Islamist agenda to India’s west and an expanding Chinese influence everywhere.
“Obama on the other hand promises to be different, he will bring in fresh informed change to the region.”
Obama’s supporters say his political vision is evolved from a more composite understanding of the world, and he is more inclined to engage diplomatically with the Islamic world. This is good for India. The Republicans, on the other hand, are known backers of a militarized Pakistan and historically played the security card in South Asia according to their needs.
Great News and wishes to Obama, but many have to follow its always and everywhere post elections many spoken and later very few implemented. These are my view points.
1. US to respect UN and not to act on bias and have control of UN.
2. Make a complete study of terrorism and ensure that its eradicated at the root level rather than making just statements.
3. Give Iraqis their country back based on the security constraints and ensure that a stabilized and people government is formed at the earliest.
4. Ensure strong measures for terrorism are enforced and everyone is made to respect each religion and do not discriminate based on color, creed, caste and associated factors.
5. Indian government need to act in full control to get back the lost places of Kashmir and ensure that Pakistan has no rights to enter Kashmir and the LOC totally to be made void and give us back Kashmir and we will take care of the development activity. The Indian Government need to act sensibly and use the intellectual brain of Obama.
6. US to identify the companies that are in shortfall or getting into the likelihood of shortfall and make before hand analysis so that the economy is not affected thereby global economy is also not shaken.
7. Identify those companies that outsource Jobs and ensure that proper compensation provided to the already employed people in those respective organizations so that the word hate is avoided and ensure that the jobs outsourced to any other country be it alone India is not affected in longer run.
8. Strict checks be made when visas provided and people who migrate.
9. Work for global peace.
10. Ensure that every year conferences summits are conducted on various sectors and knowledge is shared and not hidden exception for Military.
11. Work with UN and not ask UN to work US.
There are many others to be written and told.
Sir Obama, ensure that during your tenure lots of progress to happen and do not concentrate on one issue during your entire tenure in the White House. You are young dynamic and i wish you all the success and this election has made everyone to look that skin color does not matter. Follow your strong political career and iam sure you will keep on wining lots of elections.
Please Note: Do not at any point of time use Hitler Policy or British Policy.
Best Wishes and Happy Days ahead and you shall possess all the synergy to ensure global peace prevails everywhere.
Wikileaks, increasingly through partnerships with national newspapers such as The Hindu, is impacting government in many ways. What strikes us at Wikileaks-Movie.com is that the Wikileaks revelations, despite the challenge of independent verification, are forcing politicians, diplomats and the governments they serve through a process of self-examination and improvement in practices. The emerging disputes and conflagrations may be like an unhealthy forest which has had fire suppressed for too long and then, for a time, burns out of control until a balance can be restored.