Mr. [Murli] Deora’s “long-standing connection” to the Reliance industrial group, which includes significant energy equities, was described by the cable as his “only vulnerability.” Besides Mr. Deora, the new entrants with strong pro-U.S. credentials, according to the cable, included Mr. Saifuddin Soz, Mr. Anand Sharma, Mr. Ashwani Kumar, and Mr. Kapil Sibal. [Link]
Gems like the one above should keep readers of The Hindu entertained for days. Congratulations to them on getting the whole set of 5,100 India-related cables from WikiLeaks. They’ve created a sub-site for this. Here’s N. Ram on how they got the cables. Makes you wonder if others tried.
KAFILA - COLLECTIVE EXPLORATIONS SINCE 2006 
Well, hopefully, there will be something substantial down the line. What has been reported so far amounts to nothing much. And why is being “pro-American” (the part that you choose to highlight) wrong? The correct question is whether Messrs Sharma, Soz, Sibal and Kumar are “pro-India.” Is there anything in the cables to suggest that they are not? Or is that to be “pro-America” automatically to be “anti-India”?
The issue regarding Mr. Deora’s equity holdings is an extremely serious one since it highlights the potential for conflict of interest but it is not America’s fault that we have not tackled it. It needs to be discussed. I believe that many elected politicians in the US create blind trusts precisely to avoid such conflict of interests. (I think this is required by law if the investments include equities etc. but am not sure.) Of course, whether these blind trusts are really “blind” is a good question. For a report claiming that Arnold Schwarzenegger’s blind trust is not really that, see here.
What Mr. Mulford has reported (so far) is very similar to what all diplomats report back. Sorry — but no smoking gun as yet.
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Mr Deora and his son pretend to be ‘above board’= very puritanical. So not like the other politicians! We all know which way the cookie crumbles with the Deora clan,right?
As regards Ashwini Kumar I sincerely thot this was one guy who was truly above board- neutral to the tugs and pulls and very focused on the agenda ahead for himself with his party. But off late am seeing him lean so sharply that even the Congressmen of the old gaurd don’t lean that way! Makes me seriously wonder what his agenda is?!?…
Having also read the above comment- I seriously wonder do we have say a handful/ say 10 politicians in current times who are purely there for “service to the Nation”? If not- is’nt it time the nation cleanses this crap out?
Let the Wikileaks leak Mr Ram, we await to know more…
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