WIKILEAK CONFIRMATION ----
THIS IS WHAT I WROTE AND CIRCULATED BACK IN 2006: (Please Mark the date --- same as US Embassy cable to State Department.):
Cabinet reshuffles in India clearly have foreign policy implications, serving external objectives. This at any rate is the reading provided by a U.S. Embassy cable sent on January 30, 2006 (51088: confidential), sent by Ambassador David C. Mulford to Washington.
The January 2006 Cabinet reshuffle, which saw the removal of “contentious and outspoken Iran pipeline advocate” Mani Shankar Aiyar and the appointment of “pro-US” Murli Deora as Petroleum Minister was described by the American Embassy as signifying a “determination to ensure that US/India relations continue to move ahead rapidly.”
The changes also strengthened the cadre of “modernizing reformers” at the top in the Government of India, the Ambassador reported. The net effect of the reshuffle, he said, was a Cabinet that is “likely to be excellent for US goals in India (and Iran).”
These Cabinet changes, in January 2006, mark a steady shift to the Right, a pro-U.S. direction within the first tenure of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), more than two years before the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal came to fruition. The American Embassy clearly tracked India's tilt to the Right from early 2006 well ahead of UPA-I's rupture with the Left parties in July 2008. Although the nuclear deal was the tipping point that led to the Left's withdrawal of support to UPA-I, the cable shows that the foreign policy gap had begun to widen long before that.
Not surprisingly, Mr. Mulford could sense the Left's uneasiness more than any UPA leader could at that time. “The undeniable pro-American tilt of the Cabinet shuffle,” Mr. Mulford added, “has infuriated the Left, which will view it as a throwing down of the gauntlet and an invitation to open warfare.”
Mr. Mulford noted that Murli Deora was one of several figures inducted with longstanding ties to the Indo/U.S. Parliamentary Forum (IUPF) and the Embassy. “The UPA inducted a large number of serving MPs, including seven from the IUPF who have publicly associated themselves with our strategic partnership,” he added. “To ensure that there are no foreign policy ripples before the President's visit, PM Singh retained the critical MEA portfolio and is likely to hold on to it until after the next session of Parliament concludes and Congress has weathered crucial Assembly elections in Kerala and West Bengal in May.”
The Embassy's Foreign Ministry contacts welcomed Mr. Aiyar's departure, and commented that his energy diplomacy had “encroached on MEA turf too many times,” leading to MEA appeals to the Prime Minister's Office to intercede. “Despite the PMO warning to back off, Aiyar's Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas continued to interfere with MEA attempts to craft policy, our contacts said, citing Pakistan, China, Burma, Bangladesh, Iran and Sudan as areas of inter-governmental conflict.”
Mr. Aiyar's unwillingness to step back reportedly led to the Prime Minister's decision to remove him from this high-profile portfolio, and “cements MEA's position as the lead bureaucracy on strategic policy making.”
Mr. Mulford pointed out that unlike Mr. Aiyar, who cultivated a reputation for anti-Americanism, Mr. Deora has been associated with the U.S.-India relationship for years. Mr. Aiyar's “self-promoting maverick diplomacy” was too much for the Prime Minister to accommodate.
Mr. 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.
Keywords: cable51088, The India Cables, WikiLeaks, Cablegate,
THIS IS WHAT I WROTE AND CIRCULATED BACK IN 2006: (Please Mark the date --- same as US Embassy cable to State Department.):
Monday, January 30, 2006
WHY INDIA’S PETROLEUM MINISTER MANI SHANKAR AIYER IS STRIPPED OF HIS PETROLEUM PORTFOLIO?
Unless Manmohan Singh Government can come out with some outlandish explanations to suit the occasion, people in India and abroad, will be forced to believe that the stripping of Petroleum portfolio from his petroleum minister was the handiwork of US administration manipulators, out to thwart India’s attempts to diversify its energy sources and bring in Iran as one of its major suppliers of gas.
It is no secret that Bush and his neo-con Jewish supporters, have been ganging on Iran and are out to isolate Iran as one of the ‘axis of evil’ in the Middle East, with a view to cripple Iran’s Islamic government and bring it down to impose its own puppet government as it has managed to impose the Shah as King of Iran in years past. It cannot stomach an independent and democratically governed Iran which challenges American dictats right, center and left.
India’s now erstwhile Petroleum Minister, Mani Shankar Aiyar, had not reckoned with the clout of US Administration on his own government and had gone on a limb to finalize the IRAN-PAKISTAN-INDIA gas pipeline, with some vigor that was treated as open defiance by the Bush Administration’s policy handlers. A very hardworking, intelligent and incidentally a man of some old communist/Marxist background, had burnt midnight oil to see that he could manage long term energy security for India’s burgeoning economy from independent and diverse sources, without succumbing to US over-lordship or paying overriding commission or cut to US oil corporates, who want to monopolize on India’s oil supplies and reap unearned profits in decades to come.
At every step of the way, Mani Shankar Aiyar was hampered in his efforts to put final touches to Iran gas supplies. US took the matter so seriously, that it sent its States Department Secretary Condoleezza Rice at a crucial point of time, to warn India, not to go through with its deal with Iran.
Manmohan Singh Government had no spine to assert that Iran gas pipeline arrangement was in the ‘best interest of the nation’. As TOI reports, Aiyar has apparently displeased the PM ---- by his “foreign trips”. Those trips were to Tehran and Islamabad in full pursuit of his mission in the best interest of his nation. Apparently that displeased the Prime Minister, who is honour bound to make things smoother for US administration to sew up India into its own tapestry.
On the another hand, appointment of old Congress hand from Mumbai, Murli Deora, as the new Petroleum minister, shows up, how his ‘frequent foreign trips’ to the US to court Jewish community leaders and Jewish lobby organisations, corporate heads and Congress bigwig, was the crucial difference that tilted the balance in his favour.
It will appear that from now on, all clearances for high offices in New Delhi will have to be first vetted in Washington and New York. The far-sighted Murli Deora has fully understood which way the wind is blowing and had fully covered his flanks by courting key Jewish political and financial figures in the US, to lobby for a choice cabinet post, that will now on be at the beck and call of the Americans in making all moves over India’s energy needs and investments, without any references to ‘the best interest of India’, as long as it abides by the dictats of American Jewish lobby.
Both people and media have to be ever vigilant and articulate about the moves made by the US to subjugate India as its puppet in this part of the world. And its moves in the country’s internal affairs will be the test of its apparent success or failure in buying up India for its own national interest --- regardless of how Indian people are impacted by the exploitative inroads made by a hegemonical super power.
GHULAM MUHAMMED, MUMBAI
CHENNAI, March 15, 2011
Pro-U.S. tilt in Cabinet shuffle
By Suresh Nambath
Cabinet reshuffles in India clearly have foreign policy implications, serving external objectives. This at any rate is the reading provided by a U.S. Embassy cable sent on January 30, 2006 (51088: confidential), sent by Ambassador David C. Mulford to Washington.
The January 2006 Cabinet reshuffle, which saw the removal of “contentious and outspoken Iran pipeline advocate” Mani Shankar Aiyar and the appointment of “pro-US” Murli Deora as Petroleum Minister was described by the American Embassy as signifying a “determination to ensure that US/India relations continue to move ahead rapidly.”
The changes also strengthened the cadre of “modernizing reformers” at the top in the Government of India, the Ambassador reported. The net effect of the reshuffle, he said, was a Cabinet that is “likely to be excellent for US goals in India (and Iran).”
These Cabinet changes, in January 2006, mark a steady shift to the Right, a pro-U.S. direction within the first tenure of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), more than two years before the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal came to fruition. The American Embassy clearly tracked India's tilt to the Right from early 2006 well ahead of UPA-I's rupture with the Left parties in July 2008. Although the nuclear deal was the tipping point that led to the Left's withdrawal of support to UPA-I, the cable shows that the foreign policy gap had begun to widen long before that.
Not surprisingly, Mr. Mulford could sense the Left's uneasiness more than any UPA leader could at that time. “The undeniable pro-American tilt of the Cabinet shuffle,” Mr. Mulford added, “has infuriated the Left, which will view it as a throwing down of the gauntlet and an invitation to open warfare.”
Mr. Mulford noted that Murli Deora was one of several figures inducted with longstanding ties to the Indo/U.S. Parliamentary Forum (IUPF) and the Embassy. “The UPA inducted a large number of serving MPs, including seven from the IUPF who have publicly associated themselves with our strategic partnership,” he added. “To ensure that there are no foreign policy ripples before the President's visit, PM Singh retained the critical MEA portfolio and is likely to hold on to it until after the next session of Parliament concludes and Congress has weathered crucial Assembly elections in Kerala and West Bengal in May.”
The Embassy's Foreign Ministry contacts welcomed Mr. Aiyar's departure, and commented that his energy diplomacy had “encroached on MEA turf too many times,” leading to MEA appeals to the Prime Minister's Office to intercede. “Despite the PMO warning to back off, Aiyar's Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas continued to interfere with MEA attempts to craft policy, our contacts said, citing Pakistan, China, Burma, Bangladesh, Iran and Sudan as areas of inter-governmental conflict.”
Mr. Aiyar's unwillingness to step back reportedly led to the Prime Minister's decision to remove him from this high-profile portfolio, and “cements MEA's position as the lead bureaucracy on strategic policy making.”
Mr. Mulford pointed out that unlike Mr. Aiyar, who cultivated a reputation for anti-Americanism, Mr. Deora has been associated with the U.S.-India relationship for years. Mr. Aiyar's “self-promoting maverick diplomacy” was too much for the Prime Minister to accommodate.
Mr. 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.
Keywords: cable51088, The India Cables, WikiLeaks, Cablegate,
