An interview with Julian Assange
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The truth of the sacrifice of Maino Mata
A struggle between ‘reform cadre' and the ‘old line' in the Congress
CHENNAI: After the Congress suffered electoral losses in Punjab and Uttarakhand in February 2007, some party members advocated that party president Sonia Gandhi “jettison” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election in April-May 2007 and “put a more saleable political face at the head of the government,” according to a United States Embassy cable ( 100159: confidential) sent on March 13, 2007.
“Following a string of recent local-level electoral defeats in Mumbai, Uttarakhand, and Punjab, Sonia Gandhi and her personal advisors are very concerned that the impending Uttar Pradesh (UP) elections will turn out horribly for Congress. As a result, some are advocating that she jettison Prime Minister Singh — whose message of rapprochement with Pakistan has been criticized by the BJP — and put a more saleable political face at the head of the government,” the cable sent under the name of Embassy Charge d'Affaires Geoffrey Pyatt reported to Washington.
The Embassy appeared worried about the “reform cadre” in the government being sidelined by the “old line” Congress with socialist sympathies. “What seems clear in the aftermath of recent polls is that the reform cadre of Manmohan Singh, [Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission] Montek Singh Ahluwalia, and Finance Minister [P.] Chidambaram are politically diminished, Sonia Gandhi's inner coterie is deeply worried, and the old line Congress and their Communist fellow-travelers are empowered. Politics in India are a mess right now for Congress, and while the GOI [Government of India] is publicly optimistic about the nuclear deal, it is clearly caught in a domestic political eddy,” the cable added.
It also took note of the political compulsions of the Congress that might have a bearing on U.S. interests. “Others are urging that the Congress hunker down and play it safe on the budget, inflation, economic reform, and foreign policy — including the nuclear deal — to minimize the negative impact on UP voters, many of whom are Muslim and take a dim view of the United States.”
Energy sector concerns
The cable, accessed by TheHindu through WikiLeaks, was sent ahead of a visit to India by Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman to further the U.S.-India relationship in the energy sector.
Mr. Pyatt, in the “scene-setter” for the visit, expressed the hope that Mr. Bodman could win over the Indian nuclear scientific establishment with the prospect of “future-oriented programs” like the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership. “Your scheduled meetings in Mumbai with Department of Atomic Energy Secretary Dr. Anil Kakodkar and in New Delhi with Special Envoy Shyam Saran offer an opportunity to highlight the many benefits of U.S.-India civil nuclear cooperation, which could be lost if India does not conclude the 123 Agreement quickly,” he wrote.
Briefing Mr. Bodman on what to expect during his meetings in India, the Charge said: “The Prime Minister will likely tell you that his number one priority is extending the benefits of India's rapid growth to the 700 million Indians — mostly in the rural sector — who continue to live at a near subsistence level. Rising food and fuel prices have particularly hurt the poor, creating a political backlash against the UPA government in recent state elections. Prime Minister Singh and your other interlocutors will be very interested in your ideas on how the United States can help with India's energy needs in the short and long term, particularly with respect to the rural sector.”
Looking ahead to Mr. Bodman's meeting with Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Murli Deora, Mr. Pyatt wrote that Mr. Deora had “close ties to Sonia Gandhi's inner circle and a political base in Mumbai, and he is central to India's international quest for growing petroleum and natural gas imports, and cooperation with the United States in domestic industry development and regulatory policy.” The Minister had told American diplomats that India did not expect a final agreement to be reached on the oil pipeline with Iran due to Iranian unreliability and Iran changing the terms of the June 2005 agreement to sell India LNG from its South Pars field for 25 years. “The MPNG increasingly sees LNG from Qatar and Australia as a more viable option than several proposed pipeline projects,” the cable noted.
While giving the Energy Secretary a backgrounder to the U.S.-India civil nuclear negotiations, Mr. Pyatt said Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon had handed Under Secretary Nicholas Burns a “completely inadequate counter-draft to the 123 Agreement — authored by the skeptics in India's nuclear establishment who remain concerned about U.S. efforts to ‘entrap' India and constrain its strategic program.”
Mr. Burns, the cable added, had asked Mr. Menon to “provide a more workable basis on which the U.S. and India can continue talks, and invited an Indian team with negotiating authority to the U.S. for the next round of discussions.” (This was sent before the two countries released the full text of the 123 agreement, which allows for cooperation on peaceful uses of nuclear energy, in August 2007.)
Analysing the compulsions of the Congress-led government in this context, it said:
“The politics around India's energy policy reflects a struggle between needed economic reform and political impediments to change. Prime Minister Singh and Deputy Chairman Ahluwalia are well aware of what economic reforms are needed to enhance India's long term growth.
“They realize that reasonable regulation and market-based pricing of electricity, petroleum products, natural gas, and coal would be most conducive to encouraging investment, reliable revenue streams, energy efficiency, and rational choice among projects and energy sources. However, the political imperatives of middle-class and poor voters' resistance to price increases, particularly with consumer inflation recently exceeding 6%, have induced the GOI to maintain price controls and government subsidies. Similarly, although the GOI privately doubts Iran's reliability as a potential source of natural gas by pipeline or of liquefied natural gas, it continues negotiations with Iran to appease Muslim and left-wing voters and Members of Parliament.”
The Hindu : Opinion / Op-Ed : A struggle between ‘reform cadre' and the ‘old line' in the Congress
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‘It means he has a habit of reactively covering up allegations of corruption'
“I am very encouraged by what's happened in India,” says Julian Assange, Editor-in-Chief of WikiLeaks, referring to the public response to The Hindu's agenda-shaping publication, over 21 consecutive days, of a spectrum of articles based on the India Cables, accessed by the newspaper through WikiLeaks. Noting that “India has terrible corruption and something must be done about it,” he speaks warmly of “so many people... now pushing strongly against it,” including “the Gandhi-ist” Anna Hazare. He suggests that courageous acts by individuals elsewhere, for example in Tunisia, offer “a method that will provide widespread will to battle against corruption.”
Mr. Assange is genuinely distressed and not a little outraged by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's disputation in Parliament of the authenticity of the India Cables, his Lok Sabha statement that the government “cannot confirm the veracity, contents or even the existence of such communication.”
The WikiLeaks chief has strong words to say on this:
“We have not come across this reaction and that reaction disturbed me. Because Hillary Clinton had been involved in informing the Indian government, in December, as well as many other governments, that this was coming. There has been no question as to the credibility of any document we have ever published in the last four years, let alone the [U.S. Embassy] cables – which have been authenticated by the very aggressive action of the State Department towards us and by hundreds of journalists from the most reputable institutions across the world.
“That is why I said I find that statement a deliberate, knowing attempt to mislead the Indian population...Because it is directly from Prime Minister Singh's mouth and he knows better than to do that. While I have heard – I have no proof but the consensus seems to be that – he is not personally corrupt, here's a clear attempt to cover up for the possible corruption of other people. Rather than simply playing it straight, which he should have done, and say, ‘Look, there are allegations. They are serious and we will investigate them and come to the truth of the matter and give a full report to Parliament.'
“I think if he had taken that approach, he would have been served a lot better. So he has acted against his own interests and acted against the interests of his party, which is odd. So I would suggest it means that he has a habit that he was following rather than thinking things through – and a habit of reactively covering up allegations of corruption.”
These observations were made in response to one of my questions during a one-hour interview given to The Hindu at Ellingham Hall, a stately Georgian country house set amidst acres and acres of farmland in the county of Norfolk. Here, as part of his bail conditions, the WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief is a house guest of his friend, strong supporter, and free speech campaigner, Vaughan Smith — former British Army officer and the founder of London's Frontline Club.
When we arrive at the Hall, early for the 2 p.m. interview, on Friday, April 8, we are greeted courteously by Mr. Smith. As we busy ourselves setting up the cameras and digital recorders in a tastefully decorated drawing room overlooking the grounds, Mr. Assange wanders in, gives us some practical advice on the set-up, and goes off for a walk across the fields. When he returns, he is completely relaxed and engaged with the hard copies I have brought him of the WikiLeaks coverage in 21 consecutive issues of The Hindu, and with the impending interview.
First, he is impressed by “a spectrum of publishing in India” which, in his view, is comparable with WikiLeaks' positive experience with its regional partners in Latin America – “the local focus is able to really burrow into important details.”
Secondly, “I am tempted to say, based upon my reading of The Hindu, that it is in a position to report more freely than these other papers are in their respective countries.” He offers an interesting hypothesis on what has made this possible.
Responding to my question on the impact of the Embassy cables on countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, Mr. Assange offers us and The Hindu's readers a fascinating insight into what has happened and is in progress across this region and WikiLeaks' role in all this.
The Hindu : Today's Paper News : ‘It means he has a habit of reactively covering up allegations of corruption'
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usual rona dhona.. 
