Cash-for-Votes cables are authentic: Assange to NDTV

New Delhi: In an exclusive interview to NDTV's Prannoy Roy, Julian Assange says that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is wrong to have questioned the authenticity of the WikiLeaks cable that stormed the Indian Parliament last week. However, he also stressed the charges are worth investigating.

A cable in 2008 sent from a US diplomat in Delhi says that the Congress bought MPs ahead of its crucial vote of confidence. The Left had pulled out of the government over the nuclear deal with the US.

Speaking to NDTV, Assange says the PM's statements "seem like a deliberate attempt to mislead the public by suggesting that governments around the world do not accept the material and it is not verified."

The WikiLeaks founder also says, "the cables are authentic but the contents of the cables may or may not be correct. They need to be investigated, interrogated."

Here is an excerpt from that interview.

NDTV: There is of course an alternate point of view that what you revealed in these cables is a set of opinions and assessments made by some American diplomats in the US embassy. And you were just saying that 'my task ends there in revealing these secret cables' but there are other points of view that says that it leaves a lot of collateral damage where opinions and assessments by these officials are taken as facts to embarrass and weaken their states. And people ask you is that a fair thing to do, just leave this out and wash your hands off it?

Assange: Absolutely not....it is not correct to say that all these cables are mere opinions by US diplomats...that is not true. These are official correspondence sent by Ambassadors, sent in their official capacity back to Washington. Their motivations are to improve their career prospects generally. So they want Washington to understand that they are engaged in the country. They are getting good sources of information and they are reporting back. This seems to be the predominant thing. But they report what they say are facts and they also present opinions...it is important to keep these two different. In the cases of these Indian cables which are causing such a furor about bribery...such an interesting case...it is very hard to understand why the US Embassy official would lie about that to Washington. What is more interesting is under what basis was he told that information? That the US Embassy official was shown that cash? Could it have been that it is a US issue? Could it have been to demonstrate how compliant certain parts of Indian Parliament work with US interest? Or it could have been to set up or frame another group? It is hard to see what benefit there would be in framing another group to Washington through that method. It is not clear what benefit it would be. ...Of course what the officials say and how they gain their knowledge too must be investigated and interrogated. But the comment I have been hearing from Prime Minister Singh....these, to me, seem like a deliberate attempt to mislead the public by suggesting that governments around the world do not accept the material and it is not verified ...absolutely false! Hillary Clinton last year December spoke to the Indian government last year, perhaps to Prime Minister Singh or that level to forewarn that this material would be coming out. There is no doubt that these are bonafide reports sent by the American Ambassador back to Washington and these should be seen in that context. That does not mean every fact in them is correct, you have to look at their sources and how they gave this information.


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Raja, aides to be produced in court today

Former telecom minister A Raja will be produced in the Patiala House court on Thursday, a day after he was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the 2G spectrum scam case. Raja, along with his personal secretary RK Chandolia and former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura, will appear at court for the hearing after spending the night in Tihar Jail.

Raja was arrested on Wednesday even as the scam-hit Manmohan Singh government hoped this tangible action against corruption would help restore its credibility, dilute the opposition's onslaught and help it break the stalemate in Parliament.

Soon after, the DMK seemed set to suspend him.

The CBI held Raja and two of his close associates, retired IAS officer Siddhartha Behura, who was telecom secretary in 2008, and Raja's personal secretary, RK Chandolia, for allegedly manipulating procedures while allocating the second-generation telecom spectrum licences in 2007-08.

All three had been called to the CBI headquarters in the morning and will spend the night in a CBI lock-up.

Raja, (47), the Dalit face of the DMK and a five- time member of the Lok Sabha, was forced to resign on November 14, 2010 after details of a CAG report — stating that the spectrum allocation led to a R1.76 lakh crore notional loss to the exchequer — became public.

His arrest came two days after his mentor and DMK chief M Karunanidhi held discussions with Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on strengthening ties for the Tamil Nadu assembly elections.

For the DMK, it was a toss-up between the impact of inaction against corruption and Raja's vote-bank.

For the Congress, the action was imperative to substantiate its claim that it was serious about tackling corruption. But the Congress dismissed suggestions that the arrest would affect the credibility of the PM or raise questions about the collective responsibility of the Cabinet and the accountability of the PM for not acting earlier against Raja.

The 2G scam paralysed the entire winter session over the opposition's demand for a joint parliamentary committee probe. The issue may trouble the forthcoming budget session too. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has convened an all-party meeting on February 8 to resolve the stalemate.

Although the uneasy UPA government, also hit by the Adarsh society and Commonwealth Games scams, hoped the arrest would help it restore its credibility, the opposition termed it "too little, too late".

Sources said unlike the Congress, which has shown its intent by acting against Raja, former Maharashtra CM Ashok Chavan and Suresh Kalmadi, the BJP is yet to punish anyone for the land scandal in Karnataka.

The sources also recalled the Tehelka expose on corruption in defence contracts in 2001 where no action was taken against former defence minister George Fernandes.

CBI sources said the decision to arrest Raja was taken after the agency unearthed details of some financial transactions of Raja between October 2007, when the licensing process began, and January 2008, when the licences were issued.

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http://www.hindustantimes.com/Raja-aides-to-be-produced-in-court-today/Article1-657894.aspx

2G spectrum scam: CBI knows who handled bribe money, says Arun Shourie

New Delhi: In a new revelation on the 2G spectrum scam, BJP leader and former Telecom Minister Arun Shourie has said that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) knows the identity of the man who handled the bribe money in the Telecom Ministry, and wondered why that person has not been questioned till now.

Speaking to Shekhar Gupta on NDTV's Walk the Talk, Shourie also said the CBI clearly knows the identities of the front companies that were used for the 2 G scam.

Shourie: The CBI knows to such an extent that the officer has said that these companies' representatives used to bring the note which he should sign on a pen drive. It used to be put into my computer, a print taken and Raja would sign it. To this detail the CBI knows. CBI knows the identity of the front companies that were used.

Shekhar: Front companies for money transactions...bribe transactions?

Shourie: I would have no doubt, otherwise they are not doing charity here...and the correspondence is there. The correspondence of the licenses being given and the company suddenly prospering...they suddenly become very great consultants...they suddenly get very great infrastructure projects...they can't show which is the bridge they have built...the CBI knows the identity of the critical person who handled the money and it is a mystery to the other officers as to why that a particular officer has not been questioned to this date.

The accommodation of allies by the PM... in the terms of reference of the Group of Ministers, the pricing of spectrum was included and Raja insisted that no this should be taken out...and somehow this was taken out from the reference of the Group of Ministers. It could not have been done in our system without the knowledge of the PM.


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http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/2g-spectrum-scam-cbi-knows-who-handled-bribe-money-says-arun-shourie-66796

Prithviraj Chavan latest non-member of Maharashtra House to be CM

Technocrat-politician Prithviraj Chavan, thrust into the mantle of Maharashtra Government's leadership, is the latest state politician who would be sworn in as the Chief Minister although he is not a member of either House of the state legislature.

64-year-old Chavan, a member of the Rajya Sabha, will have to get elected to either the state Assembly or Council within six months of being sworn in. He succeeds Ashok Chavan, who was forced to quit over his alleged role in the Adarsh scam.

In 1980, AR Antulay became the first politician in Maharashtra to be sworn in as CM while not a legislator. He was then a member of Rajya Sabha. After becoming the Chief Minister, Antulay contested the Assembly bypoll and won with over 90,000 votes.

In 1986, Ashok Chavan's father, the late S B Chavan, was a member of Lok Sabha when he came to the state from the Centre and was sworn in as Chief Minister. He later became an MLC.

In 1993, Maratha strongman Sharad Pawar, who is now a member of the Union ministry like Prithviraj Chavan, was sworn in as CM while not member of either House in the state.

When Sushilkumar Shinde became the chief minister in 2003, replacing Vilasrao Deshmukh, he was a Lok Sabha member.