World

Indian govt response to WikiLeaks the worst: Julian Assange

Wikileaks founder, in interview to Times Now, says he believes Indian PM is misleading the nation about Wikileaks.

Express April 27, 2011

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, in an interview to Times Now, said that the response of the Indian government to the leaked US diplomatic cables WikiLeaks was one of the worst in the world and left much to be desired.

While talking to Times Now Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami, Assange said that when WikiLeaks started releasing cables about India, they not only revealed various scandals but also the Indian government’s response to it.

He added that he believed that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was deliberately attempting to mislead the Indian nation on what Wikileaks were. “The government will have to be pushed and pushed until they see that there is an advantage in performing a proper response.”

Assange said there are Indian names among those allegedly having secret bank accounts abroad.

As per the WikiLeaks cables published in an Indian newspaper The Hindu, a US diplomat was told that Rs50-60 crore was kept aside by the Congress party.

The purpose was to get some opposition members of the Lok Sabha on board before the trust vote in July 2008 during the first tenure of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

COMMENTS (26)

maulana | 13 years ago | Reply All the persons likely to get involved in the Swiss Bank Scandal...are Congress people and people who have soft corner for Pakistan....people who have been following vote-bank appeasement policies....their downfall is not a good news for pakistan.... So, i request my pakistani friends to tone down their jubilation a bit !!

Yasar | 13 years ago | Reply Indians used wikileaks to its advantage when involved pakistan. lol when targets india, lets threaten.

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R S JOHAR | 13 years ago | Reply Well, some negative news about India for our Pakistani friends to cheer about. However, to be fair to them, they can surely point their fingers at us on this serious issue as we Indians have been doing on their various issues. ET has published only small part of interview of Times Now with Assange, but the whole text is more damaging. Neverthless, Government of India has taken up the case with Swiss Govt to un-earth the names who have deposited black money in Swiss Bank and new Lok Pal bill if passed will certainly force the Govt to act more decisively on this matter.

omar yusaf | 13 years ago | Reply @Indian: Ouch! Hate to admit it, but your closing line was a killer. "paid & get laid" indeed! Tragically, this bucket of mud is a hard one to wash off here in Pak. It well and truly sticks like the proverbial stain on the toilet bowl. If ever we needed a slogan to get us out of this mess, by galvanising the masses to shout, "Enough is enough!", do you suppose we could count on you to come up with an awesome slogan to help us out? A killer line is what we need. Think of it as your good deed, not for the day, but for the decade. You may even be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, for bringing peace to a sorely troubled part of the world, not to mention the fact that we could get back to opening the market again for the trade in pyaaz and timaatar. Its a Win-Win all around. It may even start a healthy trend, and both neighbours might fall over each other just to be able to lend a helping hand. What do say @Indian? Will you help us out? Please?

John | 13 years ago | Reply @Goldleaf: Potential loss of $40 billion in 2G spectrum calculated based on 3G spectrum auction sales. There is a major difference. As much as one would like to sensationalize the news, the real loss to India exchequer, is nil., other than the corruption involved in allocating the spectrum and kick backs to the minister, who is now in jail. When companies went for 2G spectrum in India, the technology already has moved onto 3G area and the companies competed through corrupt practices only to be in the market. No business model would survive the calculated 2G spectrum value, with its limited bandwidth, especially when infrastructure needs building. As shown recently, the actual market value of 3G spectrum in India is only $28 billion, a good amount for India exchequer, when technology is in 4G. It only proves that the potential losses of 2G is over exaggerated. Industry analysts were saying on this matter, but no one bother to listen. Now with 3G auction value, hopefully the CAG of India will recalculate the "potential losses" in actual terms. Corruption in allocation: different matter, lock them in jail and throw the key away, hopefully.

Rakib | 13 years ago | Reply @Goldleaf: A while ago you said here the scandal in 2G was of $40 billion. Now you say scam in 3G is of $40 billion. It may be a typo,or else do please make up your mind. Corruption of any kind is bad in theory but massive amounts do create a sensation. It prevents a questioning attitude because many develop a vicarious interest in inflating figures..The astronomical amount is a figure rather arbitrarily arrived at based on observations by office of Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG) on the basis of what could have been the profit earned by GoI; assumption here being GoI is in business of profit-maximisation as its avowed goal.It is not for CAG to wonder whether the Buyers would not have passed on the burden of the huge purchase price to the consumer of the service. For some politicians there is delicious snobbery in jobbery. There was gross misuse of authority by the Minister concerned and corruption was certainly involved. But,how much really? No one knows that for sure as yet.May be it is a fraction of what is sensationalised. CAG figures have been disputed. Matter is under investigation and presently the Minister and his cohorts have been arrested. Eventually the "real" figures may be revealed. Till then do let us all enjoy the awe-if not the envy-that the thought of $40B inspire.

GoodDeedsLeadTo | 13 years ago | Reply Pakistan is infested with terrorists, but Pakistan or Pakistanis are not labeled as terrorist nations. There are good and bad side in Pakistan and India both, like corruption on both sides, incompetent Pakistani administration, killing of untouchables in the eastern part of India, oppression and killing of Kashmir civilians by Indian government, Indian economy flourishing due to several million jobs outsourced to India which is now causing frustration among Americans, Gujarat massacre, bad governance by Pakistani government. One should not only point fingers at others, One should have the courage to speak the truth, even if it is about one own self, even ones own culture, or country or family. Yes, it is true Pakistan is going through terrible crises. But Pakistan has many people like Hassan Nisar, Imran Khan who have the courage to accept the flaws. If you don't accept your flaws, and live in dreams, then you would never be able to correct yourself, only point finger at others. Arundhata Roy is the star of India. She is patriotic. It is bad to be nationalist, being nationalist make you unjust. Patriotism makes you self critical and reaching solutions & peace.

Maulana Diesel | 13 years ago | Reply You guys remember the money made in the Bofors gun deal? That alone was close to $100 million. Also lets not forget the "honourable" Mr. Fernandes and the Tehelka expose.....LOL!

boiling blood | 13 years ago | Reply @John: thnx but did anyone ask???ANYONE???

Goldleaf | 13 years ago | Reply FORTY BILLION DOLLARS in the 3G license deal.....that sum makes Zardari look like Mother Teresa :)

Meekal Ahmed | 13 years ago | Reply Indian's have the largest amount of bank balances in Switzerland. However they are trying to recover that money having signed a special protocol with the Swiss government. We should do the same.

John | 13 years ago | Reply Here are certain facts The Indian sounding names alluded to by Assange based on leaked SWISS bank documents are just that, names. They are legal investment firms, such as Annapoorna investments and others and these investment firm accounts are handled by other investment firms as well in joint venture investments. There is nothing illegal for Indian investors in putting their money in investment firms overseas as long as they disclose. And the documents on Indian sounding names are legal investment firms, based overseas, who further invest their money in international investment firms for joint ventures in various fields. As far as wikileak assumption goes, that these names represent secret bank account of corrupt Indians, based on their names, where as the investment portfolio indicates such is not the case, and all financial transactions are transparent, as far as one can see from the credibility of the board of directors. Times Now did a sensational piece on it without doing their own research. One can get full details of the various "Indian sounding names" investment portfolio from investment firms' websites. Just google it, Watson! They are based in several countries including I wasted my time in doing research on Times Now " Indian names secret accounts" story and you can do the same. As far the rest of the story, I 'll leave the opinion to the readers. (I posted a similar comment earlier but for reasons unknown, the moderator found it Abusive and not sensational enough and censored it. Hope this time it gets posted)

Ajay | 13 years ago | Reply @Maulana Diesel: India has some things in commonb with Pakistan even if we are not proud of those. One of that is corruption. A contrast with Pakistan is a meek PM unliek Pakstani PM's who have the courage to do a Munna-bhai with fake flood survicors and even give away cheques to them; our PM does have the good of the nation in mind but he is helpless as all corruption points to the highest seat of power- Sonia/Rahul. He can't do much about it. If he does not follow the diktat, then he will have to relinquish chair and whatever good he is able to do for the nation (which he does) will not be able to do. The scale of looting the nation is much less than Pakistan in relation to overall revenues. The scale of good work done by the same politcians is many times more than Pakistan.

aman | 13 years ago | Reply @goldleaf India grows at 9% with these corruption taking place!!We are soon going to implement Lok Pal bill and we will be able to control corruption at bureaucracy and politics,then we can grow at 15% Yearly!!

Anoop | 13 years ago | Reply I never used the word India Shining. And, Assange, is absolutely true. The Government will have to come back to the people after it completes its term and people will give their verdict.

Ron(Indian) | 13 years ago | Reply @boiling blood: @Maulana Diesel: Do you know indians were aware of the corruption whether its CWG or 2G... ? That is because of Right To Information Act (RTI). Indian media too on daily basis exposed our government in regard to these scams. And credit of this goes to Anna Hazare for bringing RTI to the parliment. Regarding Indian black money in swiss bank, people are well aware of this infact recently Indian SC has blasted the government in one particular case. It is assumed that the black money in Swiss bank is in corporate form so it will be slightly difficult to trace. We are eagerly waiting for these names and complete details and we are much more interested than anyone else after all it's our hardearn money and we want it back. We are also waiting for "the anticorruption Jan Lokpal bill" in monsoon session of parliment. Thanks.

Goldleaf | 13 years ago | Reply Corruption in india absolutely dwarfs all the corruption in Pakistan. Just the corruption in the 2G license scandal is estimated to be worth $40 billion. Yes India is shinning....in corruption!

joy | 13 years ago | Reply respected Mr Assange the other day you were waxing eloquent as to how the newspaper " Hindu" had used the wikileaks which had ushered a revolution of sorts in India... remember..govts anywhere will never take kindly to wikileaks...its the common people who take cognisance of the reports and react...were it not so..ur multi million dollar entity would never have seen the light of the day thanks to you India has so many A listers behind bars today

Rakib | 13 years ago | Reply Not to defend inaction by GoI or to overlook corrupt nature of Indians but Assange and his worshippers do display the kind of faith in WikiLeaks that is troubling. WikiLeaks are useful in themselves for ensuring certain corrective measures that are yet to be publicised, but not as instruments of indictment that their owner just may believe them to be. Assange did not move the earth. His treasure-hunt managed to underscore the obvious, in most cases. It is rather odd that a vague remark of a local politico reproduced by an American diplomat in his sexed-up Report to his boss becomes in no time a credible accusation, changes in to a charge sheet, turns in to proof of culpability and then becomes pronouncement of guilt & final judgement simply because the matter was salivatingly "Leaked". It gives the kind of respectability to a shady whisperer that even a courageous Émile Zola of "J'accuse" fame did not have. How can it be believed that a report by a US diplomat based on bazaar gossips or off the cuff remarks become gospel truth just because it was confidential and Assange managed to get the cache hacked in to? There is stupidity in ignoring the Leaks altogether but disaster lurks in taking them completely at face value.

aman | 13 years ago | Reply Thanks to assange!! we all indians are eagerly waiting for indians names who have banks accounts in swiss banks!! please help us expose the congress party and all corrupt politicians faces!!

Indian | 13 years ago | Reply Ofcourse, corruption in india is eating the country. But thanks to wikileaks, indians have wokeup and anna hazare is leading the agitation and millions of indians have responded. The govt has bowed down to the demands by establishing the committe. Atleast, indians dont get paid & get laid.

Arshad | 13 years ago | Reply @Maulana Diesel: Don't laugh Mr. maulana, what wikileak told that is not secret at all, we indians know all these very well, but recently published wikileak revealed ISI as a terrorist organization, which is very shamefull to you people. And also there is too much negative leaks in wikileaks about pakistan rather then india.

ashok sai | 13 years ago | Reply @Maulana Diesel: Still it is better than labelled as a terrorist nation !!!

boiling blood | 13 years ago | Reply typically indians..poor Msingh caught in them...

malik | 13 years ago | Reply Manmohan Singh's job is not to serve his nation, but to protect his master, Sonia Gandhi !! By misleading the nation and by deflecting the attention away from all the scams that lead to her door step, he is doing an effective job of protecting the dynasty !!

Maulana Diesel | 13 years ago | Reply ha ha ha....@anoop @hedgefunder @all indians.......you have any thing to say or is this all part of a conspiracy to taint the name of India Shinning??

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