Why LN Mishra was killed!WikiLeaks exposed murder, conspiracy and corruption politics in India!Mystery of dr Ambedkar`s death not to be investigated!

Why LN Mishra was killed!WikiLeaks exposed murder, conspiracy and corruption politics in India!Mystery of dr Ambedkar`s death not to be investigated!

Mind you,unlike in the past, the latest tranche of secret US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks have not been leaked, but have been "legitimately obtained from a US government web site" and released in a user-friendly searchable format.Rather it may be an indication of change in India diplomacy in Washington.Recent upsurge of  Extreme Hindutva linked with Narendra Modi`s projection as next Prime Minister has got the support of zionist global order. it should be understood. Moreover, it is clear that Indian Politics has aways been inflicted with murder, conspiracy and corruption weven in seventies.It should also be remebered on the time of Ambedkar birth anniverasary that the mysterious death of the leader of Indian bahujan samaj has never been investigated. We may get some cables to be enlightened as the murderous seventies showcase.These cables also prove how United States of America succeeded to make India an open market economy under its periphery.

  

Palash Biswas

Mobile: 919903717833

Skype ID: palash.biswas4

Email: palashbiswaskl@gmail.com

Why LN Mishra was killed!WikiLeaks exposed murder, conspiracy and corruption politics in India!Mystery of dr Ambedkar`s death not to be investigated!

The latest tranche of US diplomatic cables, called the Kissinger Cables, by WikiLeaks, may rekindle the interest of the CBI in the 38-year-old murder case of former Railway Minister Lalit Narayan Mishra.The cables talk about the US concern of their reported association with Anand Marg, a sect which was blamed for the murder. Mishra was killed in a bomb blast while he was inaugurating a broad gauge line in Samastipur, Bihar, on January 2, 1975.The US embassy here suspected that R K Karanjia of Mumbai-based Blitz tabloid was on the payrolls of Shah of Iran and had taken money from then railway minister L N Mishra to defame his Congress colleague and home minister, Uma Shankar Dikshit.According to a cable sent from New Delhi's US Embassy discussing the serious rifts within the Congress party in 1973, "Rail minister Mishra, who had clashed with home minister Dikshit over Bihar politics, is reliably reported to have paid "Blitz" editor Karanjia to launch its anti-Dikshit campaign." The cable was sent on July 27, 1973.Mind you,unlike in the past, the latest tranche of secret US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks have not been leaked, but have been "legitimately obtained from a US government web site" and released in a user-friendly searchable format.Rather it may be an indication of change in India diplomacy in Washington. Recent upsurge of  Extreme Hindutva linked with Narendra Modi`s projection as next Prime Minister has got the support of zionist global order. it should be understood. Moreover, it is clear that Indian Politics has aways been inflicted with murder, conspiracy and corruption weven in seventies.It should also be remebered on the time of Ambedkar birth anniverasary that the mysterious death of the leader of Indian bahujan samaj has never been investigated. We may get some cables to be enlightened as the murderous seventies showcase.These cables also prove how United States of America succeeded to make India an open market economy under its periphery.

These diplomatic cables about 1.7 million from the period of 1973-76 - now being dubbed as "The Kissinger cable" -- were declassified by the US state department in 2006 and since then have been posted at the website - www.archive.org -- of National Archives and Records Administration. The website has collated a variety of records including cables, intelligence reports and congressional correspondence. Assange has carried out much of the work from his refuge in Ecuador's embassy in London and told the domestic Press Association that the records highlighted the "vast range and scope" of US influence around the world. Assange has been holed up in the tiny diplomatic mission for nine months as he seeks to avoid extradition to Sweden over allegations of rape and sexual assault, which he denies.WikiLeaks sent shockwaves around the diplomatic world in 2010 when it released a set of more than 250,000 leaked US cables.NARA is an independent US state agency charged with preserving and documenting government and historical records.

The new records, dating from the beginning of 1973 to the end of 1976, have not been leaked and are available to view at the US national archives. They include many communications which were sent by or to then US secretary of state Henry Kissinger. Many of the documents, which WikiLeaks has called the Public Library of US Diplomacy (PlusD), are marked NODIS (no distribution) or Eyes Only, while others were originally marked as secret. For instance the most talked about cable — 1975NEWDE14031_b, confidential - which refers to Rajiv Gandhi, son of the then Prime Minister, late Indira Gandhi - was declassified on July 6, 2006 and has been parked on the NARA website for years.

"It is basically repackaging of the documents" and putting them into a "nice searchable format", National Security Archive senior analyst William Burr told PTI, adding, WikiLeaks has done a significantly good job.

"The WikiLeaks press release also asserts that Kissinger authored many of the telegrams but that is an exaggeration because Secretaries of State don't see many of the hundreds of thousands of telegrams that go out under their names," Burr added.

The National Security Archive - which is part of the George Washington University - in a press release issued on April 21, 2006 had said that NARA has put almost 320,000 classified cables on-line when it opened up State Department document databases from 1973 and 1974.

"This is significant news for researchers, because the text of declassified diplomatic cables is now retrievable on the NARA Web site," the press release had said.

After 2006 rest of the documents were gradually posted over the next few years on the NARA website which though is searchable but not as user friendly as WikiLeaks has put it in the format released yesterday.

"The form in which these documents were held at NARA was as 1.7 million individual PDFs. To prepare these documents for integration into the PlusD collection, WikiLeaks obtained and reverse-engineered all 1.7 million PDFs," it said.

It also corrected many errors for example harmonising the many different ways in which departments, capitals and people's names were spelt.

WikiLeaks PlusD stands for Public Library of US Diplomacy, which the whistleblower website said holds the world's largest searchable collection of "US confidential, or formerly confidential, diplomatic communications".

"The collection covers US involvements in and diplomatic or intelligence reporting on, every country on Earth. It is the single most significant body of geopolitical material ever published," Julian Assange WikiLeaks Founder said in the press release.

The sect, based on the philosophy propounded by Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar also called Shri Shri Anandamurti, was said to be part of several other sensational crimes. In March 1975, the members of the group were reportedly charged for trying to assassinate former Chief Justice of India A N Ray. Later in 1995, they were also blamed for the dropping arms in Purulia, West Bengal.

What apparently worried the US the most was the statement of the then Minister of State for Home, Om Mehta, told Parliament in August 1975 about the arrest of four Anand Marg members in connection with the life attempt on Ray.

"He held that GOI investigators have uncovered "some link" between the Ray's incident and the January assassination of Minister L N Mishra. Mehta said that one of Ray's assailants, Ranjan Dwivedi, a lawyer in SC is married to a US citizen. The US wife of the detained person is also a marg member. She returned to the US on July 11. The Leftist press has already begun to use Mehta's revelation to malign the US," reads the cable.

Karanjia was also suspected by the Americans of being on the payrolls of Iran's Shah. In a cable sent on July 21, 1975, the US Embassy said on the anti-US editor, "We have been puzzled for some time about the connection between the Shah and Karanjia and cannot help wondering whether some ill-advised Iranian Consul General in the past urged the Shah to put Karanjia on the royal payroll. (We have thought for some time that many of the staff of the Iranian consulate general in Bombay is Savak (Iranian intelligence agency) rather than foreign office. In any case, they have, as a general rule, been impressively unimpressive.)"

The Embassy claimed, "Whatever the explanation, it is generally assumed here that Karanjia is on the Shah's payroll. Shah's interest in the large Parsee and Iranian communities in this part of India might, in his mind, serve as rationale for a friendly paper, even if it is Blitz."

The comments about Karanjia came after Blitz carried an interview of Shah supporting PM Indira Gandhi's move to declare internal emergency in India. In his report, Karanjia had said that the Shah "likened the Indian prime minister's ordeals in dealing with extremists of the right as well as the left with his own experience during the earlier traumatic years of his reign, when 'a dark, ugly and strange combination of mullahs, landlords and communists joined foreign elements in a conspiracy to dismember and destroy Iran'."

Karanjia blamed "American news agencies and syndicated trash" for the anti-India articles appearing in Iranian press." The US cable goes on to call Karanjia a "thorough-going scoundrel".

Gandhi brothers competed as middlemen for IAF deal: WikiLeaks

During the Emergency (1975-77), the Gandhi brothers, Rajiv and Sanjay, may have competed as representatives in at least one of the most lucrative aircraft contracts of the day, suggest the US embassy cables released by Wikileaks.

The US embassy had said in a cable on July 30, 1976 that the Maruti company controlled by Sanjay was negotiating for BAC (British Aircraft Corporation) in India, and in a later cable added that it believed the company was already working with it. BAC was in the race for two aircraft contracts in India—for supplying aircraft to Indian Airlines and as a joint developer of Jaguar fighter for the Indian Air Force's Deep Penetration Strike Aircraft (DPSA) project.

The US embassy cables — sent between 1973 and 1976 — suggest that Rajiv was working for Saab-Scania, whose Viggen aircraft was in the fray with Jaguar for the DPSA venture.

So, if the secret cables from the US embassy in India are to be believed, then the brothers were working for rival firms that were desperate to sell fighters to the IAF.

It is not clear if the brothers' rivalry over IAF's fighter deal had spilled over to family ties. However, the IAF's fighter contract went beyond the Emergency, and the final decision could not be taken until 1978, when the Janata government settled for Jaguar fighters.

It is not recorded if Maruti, or Sanjay Gandhi, financially benefitted from the deal.

Sanjay also probably worked for BAC in Indian Airlines contract. It had bid its aircraft 111-474 against Boeing's 737-200 and Fokker's F-28 Mark 4000. Finally, Boeing bagged the contract.

According to the US cables, Maruti was also keen to represent other aircraft manufacturers in India.

On August 27, 1976, the US embassy cabled Washington DC saying that K L Jalan, managing director, Maruti Heavy Vehicles, requested mission's assistance in "arranging a meeting with the president or high level official of Cessna aircraft to discuss the sale of Cessna aircraft in India". Jalan assured the embassy that his firm has an "immediate sale for two aircraft with a very promising outlook for 20 more units by fiscal year-end, March 1977".

Jalan requested that the Cessna's official make a special trip to India within the next 10 days to discuss financial details, the cable said.

Four days later, Jalan approached the US embassy again. This time he told an embassy official that Maruti wanted to contact Piper Aircraft, another aviation firm, too. "Please inform Mr Robert C Watson, Piper Aircraft Corp, Lock Haven, PA of the approach by Maruti," the cable to the headquarters said.

Three attempts were made to kill Sanjay Gandhi: WikiLeaks

There were three assassination attempts on Sanjay Gandhi, a key figure during the Emergency, including one where a high powered rifle was used when the leader was visiting Uttar Pradesh, a US cable outed by WikiLeaks has claimed.

In a September 1976 dispatch, the US embassy reported the then prime minister Indira Gandhi's younger son was targeted by an unknown assailant in a "well planned assassination attempt" which failed. The date suggests the incident occurred during the Emergency.

"Indira Gandhi's son Sanjay was shot three times on August 30 or 31 by an unknown assailant," the cable says, attributing the information to a clandestine source. The report says Sanjay escaped and was not critically injured.

If Sanjay did suffer injuries, their nature is not specified but interestingly the cable bases its information on information provided by Indian intelligence sources.

"According to Indian intelligence, this is the third attempt on the younger Gandhi's life," the cable states and goes on to surmise that the attack will eventually be blamed on revolutionary elements sponsored by outside powers.

As is now evident, no word was let out on the UP incident or any of the other alleged assassination attempts. It is now unclear whether the intelligence sources quoted in the capable were impeccable, but Sanjay's authoritarian image did earn him powerful enemies.

Opposition to Emergency and the Gandhi family came from conventional political sources as well as radical elements of both right and left wing persuasion.

Other US cables have noted that Sanjay and Indira's private secretary R K Dhawan were "non-ideological" authoritarian figures behind the Emergency who worked to ensure the PM's power remained unchallenged.

A telegraphic summary provided by US intelligence to the state department on September 6, 1976 says of the UP incident, "The information concerning the incident is under tight control at present, but the attack will eventually be blamed on revolutionary elements sponsored by outside powers."

The excesses of the Emergency led to Congress suffering a decisive defeat in the 1977 election that were held after Indira Gandhi lifted the curbs on fundamental rights. Janata Party swept to power but in all investigations that followed, there was no mention of any attempts to kill Sanjay.

Sanjay was killed in a plane crash in the Capital on June 23, 1980 soon after Congress came back to power after internal bickering consumed the Janata Party. He was 33 and a rising star in the Congress clearly seen as successor to his mother. His early death brought his elder brother Rajiv into politics who till then was a commercial pilot with Indian Airlines.

Rajiv eventually became prime minister after the assassination of his mother and then prime minister Indira Gandhi in 1984.

A US cable released by Wikileaks reveals how former prime minister Indira Gandhi's younger son, Sanjay Gandhi, positioned himself to take over the country's top job.

Read the full cable:

SUMMARY: SANJAY GANDHI ABANDONED BACK CORRIDOR POLITICS TO STEP INTO THE PUBLIC LIMELIGHT AT THE DEC 28-JAN 1 AICC SESSION AT CHANDIGARH. HE SPOKE FREQUENTLY. SENIOR GOI AND CONGRESS LEADERS SOUGHT HIM OUT TO CONVERSE OR TO BE PUBLICLY SEEN WITH HIM. SANJAY EVEN FLEW OVER RURAL VILLAGES IN THE AREA IN A LARGE HOT-AIR BALLOON, SHOWERING DOWN PICTURES OF HIS MOTHER AND LEAFLETS ON THE TWENTY POINT ECONOMIC PROGRAM. SANJAY'S PROJECTION AT CHANDIGARH; HIS STEADY ACCUMULATION OF INFLUENCE WITHIN THE GOI AND THE CONGRESS DESCRIBED IN A RECENT AIRGRAM

CONFIDENTIAL

CONFIDENTIAL

PAGE 02 NEW DE 00696 141716Z

AND THE DECEMBER PLACEMENT OF SOME OF HIS KEY SUPPORTERS IN THE CABINET LEAVE LITTLE IF ANY DOUBT THAT, WITH MATERNAL SUPPORT, IS ATTEMPTING TO POSITION HIMSELF FOR INDIA'S TOP JOB. END SUMMARY.

1. THE PRIME MINISTER'S 30-YEAR-OLD SON, SANJAY GANDHI,

ABANDONED BACK CORRIDOR POLITICS TO STEP INTO THE POLITICAL LIMELIGHTFOR THE FIRST TIME AT THE DEC 28-JAN 1 AICC SESSION IN CHANDIGARH. SANJAY AND THE PRIME MINISTER WERE THE

PRIME ATTRACTIONS AT THE SESSION REPORTED REFTEL. SANJAY SAT ON A PLATFORM BEHIND THE SPEAKERS' DIAS ALONG WITH MINISTERS AND SENIOR CONGRESS PARTY OFFICIALS. HIGH LEVEL GOI AND CONGRESS PERSONALITIES ENGAGED HIM IN STANDING CONVERSATIONS ON THE STAGE IN

WELL-ORCHESTRATED, FULL VIEW OF THE FOUR THOUSAND STRONG AUDIENCE, SOME 15 FEET TO THE SIDE OF THE SPEAKERS' PODIUM. HIS ATTRACTIVE EX- MODEL WIFE, MANEKA, OCCASIONALLY SPICED UP HIS PERSONAL CONVERSATION GROUP. CHIEF MINISTERS, POLITICIANS AND OTHERS CROWDED AROUND SANJAY. SOME BECKONED PHOTOGRAPHERS OVER TO TAKE THEIR PICTURE WITH HIM. SANJAY'S SECURITY WAS ALMOST AS TIGHT AS THE PRIME MINISTER'S. THE COFFEE SHOP IN THE LARGE CONFERENCE ROOM WAS CLOSED OFF WHENEVER HE ENTERED. CONGRESSMEN CHANTED "LONG LIVE INDIRA GANDHI, LONG LIVE SANJAY GANDHI" ON THE GROUNDS SURROUNDING THE HALL. CROWDS GAVE HIM ENTHUSIASTIC RECEPTIONS WHEREVER HE WENT. IN A PROMOTION GIMMICK, SANJAY FLEW OVER NEIGHBORING VILLAGES IN A COLORFUL HOT-AIR BALLOON, WAVING TO CHEERING PEOPLE AND SHOWERING DOWN HANDBILLS CONTAINING HIS MOTHER'S PICTURE AND HER TWENTY POINT PROGRAM. (AT THE END OF THE SESSION, THE INDIA HOT- AIR BALLOON SOCIETY ANNOUNCED THAT THE PRIME MINISTER HAD AGREED TO BECOME ITS PATRON.)

2. SANJAY'S POLITICAL DEBUT AT CHANDIGARH WENT BEYOND ATMOSPHERICS. HE ADDRESSED SEPARATE MEETINGS OF PARTY SUB-COMMITTEES AND THE CONGRESS PARTY'S NATIONAL STUDENTS UNION OF INDIA (NSUI). HUNDREDS OF MPS AND OTHER CONGRESS- MEN CLEARED OUT OF THE AICC CONFERENCE HALL TO LISTEN TO HIS KEYNOTE ADDRESS TO A YOUTH CONGRESS MEETING HELD AT A SEPARATE SITE IN CHANDIGARH. AT A RALLY, HE DRAMATICALLY ADMINISTERED A PLEDGE TO CONGRESS YOUTH TO PURGE INDIAN SOCIETY OF ALL

CONFIDENTIAL

CONFIDENTIAL

PAGE 03 NEW DE 00696 141716Z

SOCIAL EVILS AND TO IMPLEMENT THE TWENTY POINT ECONOMIC PROGRAM.

3. FOLLOWING THE SESSION'S TERMINATION, SANJAY IMMEDIATELY SET OUT ON A MULTI-STATE TOUR WITH THE ANNOUNCED GOAL TO ESTABLISH AND INVIGORATE THE YOUTH CONGRESS ORGANIZATION AT STATE AND LOCAL LEVELS AROUND THE COUNTRY. HE HAS SO FAR VISITED AND ADDRESSED RALLIES IN ANDHRA PRADESH AND BOMBAY. PRESS REPORTS INDICATE HE WILL ALSO MAKE STOPS IN MADHYA PRADESH, KARNATAKA, KERALA, WEST BENGAL AND ASSAM, AND THAT Y WILL PROBABLY BE ON THE ROAD FOR A GOOD PORTION OF THE NEXT SIX MONTHS. IT A VISAKHAPATNAM RALLY, AN ENORMOUS PICTURE OF A PENSIVE SANJAY STANDING NEXT TO THE CHIEF MINISTER HOVERED BEHIND THE SPEAKERS' PLATFORM. UNION MINISTER FOR PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS RAGHU RAMIAH HERALDED HIM AS THE "RISING SUN IN INDIAN POLITICS." HIS TRAVELLING ENTOURAGE IN BOMBAY INCLUDED DEFENSE MINISTER BANSI LAL AND INFORMATION AND BORADCASTING MINISTER V.C. SHUKLA. IN BOMBAY, SANJAY SPOKE TO A JOINT YOUTH CONGRESS-LABOR RALLY AND HELD SEPARATE DISCUSSIONS WITH LOCAL INTELLECTUALS AND NEWSPAPER EDITORS. YOUNG ANURA BANDARANAIKE, SON OF THE SRI LANKA PRIME MINISTER, SAT NEXT TO SANJAY AT THE LABOR RALLY. BANDARANAIKE ALSO ADDRESSED THE CROWD, STATING THAT HE AND SANJAY WERE ENTERING POLITICS AT THE SAME TIME. HE PROCLAIMED "WE WISH EACH OTHER TREMENDOUS LUCK."

4. SANJAY'S SPEECHES AT CHANDIGARH AND DURING HIS PRESENT TOUR WERE GENERALLY FREE FROM THE RADICAL CLICHES AND GLIB REFERENCES TYPICAL OF MANY CONGRESS POLITICIANS, ALTHOUGH HE HAS OCCASIONALLY PCIKED UP THE "EXTERNAL DANGERS" THEME AND CRITICIZED THE WESTERN PRESS WHEN DEFENDING THE EMERGENCY. HIS REMARKS HAVE BEEN MAINLY TOWARD YOUTH, URGING THEM TO ESCHEW POLITICS "WHETHER OF RIGHT, LEFT OR CENTER," TO DIRECT THEIR ENERGIES TOWARD UPLIFTING THE POOR AND INCREASING PRODUCTION, TO CHAMPION FAMILY PLANNING AND TO WORK ENERGETICALLY TO ELIMINATE "SOCIAL EVILS" SUCH AS THE DOWRY SYSTEM. HE OFTEN ENDED HIS SPEECHES BY EXHORTING HIS AUDIENCE TO PRACTICE THE EMERGENCY-RELATED SLOGAN OF "LESS TALK AND MORE WORK."

CONFIDENTIAL

CONFIDENTIAL

PAGE 04 NEW DE 00696 141716Z

5. COMMENT: SANJAY'S PRINCIPAL OBJECTIVE OVER THE PAST THREE WEEKS HAS BEEN TO PROJECT HIMSELF INTO THE PUBLIC LIMELIGHT. A RECENT YOUTH CONGRESS ANNOUNCEMENT THAT A YOUTH CONGRESS ORGANIZATIONAL PRESENCE WILL BE ESTABLISHED IN ALL STATES DOWN TO THE BLOCK LEVEL COUPLED WITH HIS PRESENT TOUR INDICATE THAT HE INTENDS TO BE AT THE FOREFRONT IN STRENGTHENING DD INCREASING THE INFLUENCE OF THE YOUTH CONGRESS ORGANIZATION IN INDIA. HIS STEADILY RISING INFLUENCE IN THE GOI AND THE CONGRESS (NEW DELHI A-398), THE RECENT INDUCTION OF SEVERAL OF HIS KEY SUPPORTERS IN THE CABINET, AND HIS UNMISTAKABLE "PUBLIC DEBUT" OVER THE PAST THREE WEEKS LEAVE LITTLE ROOM TO DOUBT THAT, UNDER THE BENEVOLENT EYE OF HIS MOTHER, HE IS ATTEMPTING TO POSITION HIMSELF AS MRS. GANDHI'S EVENTUAL SUCCESSOR.

6. COMMENTS AND VIEWS OF CONGEN BOMBAY ON SANJAY ARE INCLUDED IN THIS MESSAGE.

SAXBE

CONFIDENTIAL

Indira sycophancy peaked at first AICC session after Emergency: WikiLeaks

The first AICC session after imposition of Emergency was an 'Indira Gandhi' exercise, with then Congress president, D K Barooah (of India-is-Indira fame), comparing her to Emperor Ashoka and Mahatma Gandhi rolled into one.

The US Embassy in India, reporting on the event (as revealed by Wikileaks), said the Chandigarh session "underscored Mrs Gandhi's overriding political position and enhanced authoritarianism in India. There was no dissent. For the first time, no amendments were even considered to the resolutions that were drawn up by the CWC drafting committee of which the Prime Minister was a member."

Under heavy security, all the speakers sang paeans to Gandhi and all were her loyalists. Everybody rationalized the Emergency. "Mrs Gandhi in several emotional speeches charged that external and internal conspiracies aimed at undermining India's unity were still at work."

In other cables describing the political situation, US diplomats observed that there was apparent calm though press censorship suppressed all news or protests. Another cable said the average Indian citizen seemed unaware or unconcerned about the Emergency. Yet another cable described how Mrs Gandhi was able to craft her foreign policy more "evenly" in the absence of political opposition.

The Chandigarh AICC session was also the one where Sanjay Gandhi's star was on the ascendant, while the meet reaffirmed postponement of elections; continuation of the emergency and the inevitability of constitutional changes. The "foreign hand" theory was in full play, with long anti-CIA tirades by the members.

The Embassy observed, "It was clear she was referring to the United States, Pakistan, China and the rich nations" of the world as sponsors of these "external dangers". Internal "dangers" were the foreign press, the DMK government in Tamil Nadu, the Janata front government in Gujarat, the RSS etc. "No other speaker surpassed her forcefulness."

Siddhartha Shankar Ray, one of Gandhi's loyalists declared, Emergency had been "proclaimed to save the country".

WikiLeaks: Indira had offered to share N-tech with Pakistan in 1974

They are hostile neighbours widely seen by many as competing to have a bigger nuclear arsenal. However, after its first nuclear test in 1974, India offered to share nuclear technology with Pakistan. In her statement to Indian Parliament after the tests on July 22, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi said she had told her Pakistani counterpart, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, that New Delhi would be ready to share the relevant technology with Islamabad.

Quoting her statement the US embassy reported, as revealed by Wikileaks, "I have explained in my letter to Prime Minister Bhutto the peaceful nature and the economic purposes of this experiment and have also stated that India is willing to share her nuclear technology with Pakistan in the same way she is willing to share it with other countries, provided proper conditions for understanding and trust are created. I once again repeat this assurance."

The offer was extraordinary in its audacity, but equally in its foresight. The Indian offer came as Bhutto termed as insufficient Gandhi's assurance that tests were not meant to harm Pakistan. In his response to Gandhi, Bhutto said, many past assurances from India "regrettably remain unhonored". Testing of nuclear device is no different from detonation of a nuclear weapon, he wrote.

Pakistan tested a nuclear weapon for the first time in May, 1998 â€" a fortnight after India conducted its second nuclear test.

But Gandhi's offer to share nuclear technology with Pakistan was not the move of a potential nuclear proliferator. Instead, it showed the confidence of a leader who probably believed that India, after the test, could seamlessly become part of the international nuclear system, where New Delhi could become a legitimate nuclear supplier. Gandhi's confidence, as it turned out, was misplaced. India was immediately placed under a tough technology denial regime. In fact, the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) was created as a result of the 1974 test precisely to keep countries like India beyond the pale. It took a hard-fought nuclear deal with the US to open that door for India in 2008.

But on July 22, 1974, Gandhi was looking ahead, and wanted to ensure that the craters formed by nuclear explosions could be used for strategic storage of oil and gas or even shale oil extraction. In her statement to Parliament, she seemed bemused by the international reaction to the first Pokharan test. "It was emphasized that activities in the field of peaceful nuclear explosion are essentially research and development programmes. Against this background, the government of India fails to understand why India is being criticized on the ground that the technology necessary for the peaceful nuclear explosion is no different from that necessary for weapons programme. No technology is evil in itself: it is the use that nations make of technology which determines its character. India does not accept the principle of apartheid in any matter and technology is no exception."

Referring to Bhutto's letter, she scoffed at his suggestion that there was radioactivity leakage as a result of the test. "This was impossible as there was no venting of radioactivity to the atmosphere and no formation of a radioactive cloud. Moreover, the wind was blowing in the opposite direction as it normally does at this time of the year and even in theory, any hypothetical radioactivity could never have gone to Pakistan. The wind pattern on May 18, 1974 was from, repeat from, the south-west."

However, Gandhi remained ambiguous about weaponization of India's nuclear capability. In an interview to CBC, Canada, she had ducked the question. "If our scientists have the basic know-how, without which they couldn't have done this, then any government could have directed them to make a bomb if they had so desired," she had explained.

WikiLeaks cables: US felt public rage over Emergency may cost Indira Gandhi her life

According to WikiLeaks cables, the US had predicted an increased threat of assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her son Sanjay during Emergency.

The cable from the US embassy here to State Department in Washington in February 1976 commented on the political and economic situation prevalent during that period.

"The bureaucracy and security forces might become progressively demoralised and vulnerable to infiltration. The threat of assassination of Mrs (Indira) Gandhi or her son Sanjay, might increase," said the cable which was sent a year after Gandhi imposed Emergency.

Observing that, "the level of violent resistance against emergency had been insignificant", the cable claimed that, "There might be labour unrest in areas like Bombay-Thane industrial belt where 10 million (people) reside."

It said the "bleak outlook for peaceful resistance to the Prime Minister (Gandhi) may encourage those within the Opposition favouring more violent confrontation."

The cable also mentioned the possibility on an impact of a weakening economy on Gandhi's position.

"...the economy is bound to take a turn for the worse after the next bad Monsoon, thus weakening her position. This could be exacerbated by acts of sabotage against railway lines and economic installations," it said.

The cables also talked about the possibility of misuse of government's investigative arms and people loyal to Gandhi filling the top positions in her government.

"The government investigative arms (Income Tax, Customs etc) can be used to intimidate opponents. Her patronage resources are now enormous. Persons loyal to the Prime Minister fill the top positions in the country's paramilitary and intelligence establishments," it said.

Wikileaks cables: When ex-president Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed forced Indira Gandhi to apologise

Wikileaks shows in an US embassy cable, sent on August 6, 1976, that there was disaffection brewing between Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed during the Emergency.

"Fakhruddin is concerned that the PM and her son are pushing too hard on the political and Constitutional system of India," the cable said.

One version, the cable reported, is that the PM asked Fakhruddin to arrange for Vice-President B D Jatti to resign, "since he had been too quiet in praise of the Emergency." The cable said: "In his place, the PM wanted to place former defence minister Swaran Singh. Fakhruddin allegedly expressed his strong reluctance to go along with such a scenario."

Another version is that the "PM told the President she wished her entire cabinet to resign so that she could replace many of the older ministers with younger, more vigorous, and fresher minded individuals. Fakhruddin allegedly expressed grave concern over any plan for the wholesale disposal of senior Congress colleagues on the grounds this would jeopardize Congress unity."

The cable noted, "A third version attributes Fakhruddin's pique to a request by Sanjay that he provide a statement for the opening issue of Sanjay's new magazine, Surya,arequest the President allegedly turned down as inappropriate and unusual. Sanjay is said to have responded with unkind words about the President which were reported to him, led to his complaining to Indira Gandhi, and ultimately to the PM's offer of an apology on behalf of her son who declined to apologize." "We have reason to believe that at least some of this has a ring of truth. Fakhruddin indeed does seem to be uncomfortable with some of Mrs Gandhi's actions and certainly with those of her son," the cable said.

WikiLeaks cables: Sanjay Gandhi snubbed by RSS during Emergency

The US diplomatic cables, released by WikiLeaks, have revealed that during the Emergency days in India Sanjay Gandhi had reached out to the RSS, then a banned organisation, but was refused. The cables also painted a picture of the ups and downs of Indira Gandhi's coterie that had Congress heavyweights.

Sanjay reached out to RSS during Emergency

On December 14, 1976, at the height of tension between the government and the RSS, a cable sent by the US embassy said that Sanjay Gandhi had offered truce to the RSS. Quoting the British High Commission, the cable said the offer was turned down by the saffron organisation that was banned during the Emergency.

On the question of RSS's effectiveness, the cable noted, "We hear from number of sources that many RSS cadres have now enrolled in the Youth Congress. Whether they are there as trojan horses or because that is where the "action" is remains unclear."

The cable said that the RSS was the "most effective organised political cadre force in opposition before the Emergency" and "have continuing organisations in villages and towns". "We have little evidence of what they are doing other than possibly spreading rumours, turning out vernacular newsletters, and possibly being involved in some of the larger agitations against family planning," the cable said.

Indira calls her own shots on all matters

A couple of months after the Emergency was declared, the US embassy, on August 26, 1975, cabled an assessment of the advisors around Indira Gandhi. US Ambassador William B Saxbe wrote, "an overriding consideration is that the PM, after a lifetime in or near the cockpit of Indian politics, calls her own shots on virtually on all matters."

The cable said Sanjay's special position and R K Dhawan's role deserve special attention. But added, "Her present political advisors, like their predecessors, may eventually fade." It noted that the PM was increasingly turning to conservative chief ministers of Punjab and Haryana, Zail Singh and Bansi Lal, on political topics.

WikiLeaks cables: Indira Gandhi said Sanjay small fry, he won't be PM

Fresh US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks have revealed that Indira Gandhi had said that Sanjay Gandhi was a 'small fry' and was not going to be prime minister or president; Charan Singh was the most malleable Opposition leader, R K Dhawan plants suspicion in Indira's mind against specific Congress leaders and Jagjivan Ram was a man of few words.

Sanjay Gandhi is a 'small fry', not going to be PM

On December 27, 1976, at the height of Emergency when Sanjay Gandhi was calling the shots in the government and the Congress, a US diplomatic cable quoted Prime Minister Indira Gandhi saying something unusual: "He is much too small a fry or person because he is not going to be the prime minister or the president. All he can be is a Congress worker. So I think the attack is definitely on me."

Gandhi was addressing a political training seminar for Congress workers in Delhi and, according to the cable, "Prime Minister Gandhi on December 23 delivered a vigorous assault on the CPI for spreading baseless propaganda against her, her son and the Congress."

On Sanjay, cable said, the PM stated that she did not know whether he would remain in politics and added: "In fact I think he never would have come into politics if there had not been that tremendous attack on him in Parliament even before the Emergency because basically he was not interested in any of these things."

The US embassy's cable commented that Indira's "remarkable reference to Sanjay as a 'small fry' may be an "effort to allay fears about his growing role in national politics and to place him in a framework more acceptable to hostile elements in the Congress."

Charan Singh 'most malleable' opposition leader, many see him as a 'Trojan horse'

WikiLeaks: Sanjay Gandhi plotted to oust Cong CM

Precisely 40 years before Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi called India a beehive buzzing with complexity and energy, the analogy was used was by opponents of the Gandhi scion's grand-mother Indira Gandhi to target her party.

According to a US cable in April 1973, S Nijalingappa who led the splinter group of congressmen told them that the Indira-led Congress (R) was "like a beehive with Mrs Gandhi as queen bee. When she goes the smaller bees will fly away and hive".

Wikileaks: Indira used Emergency to de-energised institutionalized power centers

Assessing the situation in India after one year of the Emergency, US analysts said the Emergency had enabled Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to complete a six-year-old process of "de-energising" other institutionalised centers of power like the press, Parliament, judiciary etc and also assist her son Sanjay Gandhi's lateral entry into Indian politics.

"Measured in strict political terms, the PM's power today has never been greater. But the legitimacy and popular consensus the old system provided is also less assured and could become increasingly uncertain in the future," a secret Wikileaks diplomatic cable dated May 19, 1976 has revealed.

The same cable also talks about the issue of succession, which the Sanjay-led 'inner circle' was already working to capture prime-ministership in the event of Indira Gandhi's death.

"So far as we know, she is in good health at age 58 and could go on for another generation as her son Sanjay matures, she may feel he is ready to move into her position ten years (he will be 40) or more hence, and may consider 'withdrawing' in his favour. But the succession could follow a different pattern should she die sooner - and suddenly.

We believe that that the present Sanjay-led "inner circle" around the prime minister is already working to position itself to capture the prime ministership in the event of Mrs Gandhi's sudden death," the cable said.

"If the 'inner circle' should succeed in capturing the prime minstership, the likelihood of sharply enhanced authoritarianism in India would increase substantially," the cable adds.

Wikileaks Sanjay, Dhawan enjoyed exalted status for Indira

In a confidential diplomatic cable dated August 26, 1975, Delhi-based US diplomats underlined Sanjay Gandhi and RK Dhawan's exalted position among Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's inner circle of advisors whose importance would forever stay.

Gandhi was also turning more and more to the conservative-oriented chief ministers of Punjab and Harayana, Zail Singh and Bansi Lal, for consultations on political topics.

Besides them, "technocrats Pai and Subramaniam have her ear on economic affairs, intelligence czar RN Kao and paramilitary head Rustomiji on security matters."

"The advisors around her, particularly Sanjay and Dhawan, are really trusted loyalists whose continuing proximity to the prime minister is based on familiar or close personal ties.

he consults with them, and entrusts them with political assignments. Apart from Sanjay, we judge that no one in this inner circle has the potential to expand his individual influence beyond these limitations," the cable said.

On Dhawan, the cable sent by US ambassador to India William Bart "Bill" Saxbe said: "Dhawan's influence stems from his omnipresence around the prime minister. Dhawan controls who Mrs Gandhi meets at her residence, where (as opposed to her offices in South Block or parliament where visitors generally get at the most fifteen minutes) her important meetings and discussions take place. He has skillfully attached himself to Sanjay and works as a purveyor of his as well as Mrs Gandhi's instructions."

Wikileaks: JP's movement the 'return of moral politics'

A confidential diplomatic cable dated November 8, 1974, by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, then US ambassador to India, termed socialist leader Jai Prakash Narayan's movement as the return of moral politics that unsettled Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Moynihan wrote: "Narayan's rejection of power in 1952 when Nehru offered him India's deputy prime-ministership; his abstinence from sex throughout his married life; his Gandhian style of simple living; and his insistence that morality must not be divorced from politics have earned him enormous favor among politically conscious, non-westernized Indians."

"To Mrs Gandhi, the reality that the type of challenge Narayan poses is one that she has not confronted before and one which will not necessarily yield to a "hard line" – or to the exercise of the unparalleled political skills she has shown up to now. She may, therefore, adjust by shifts from direct "confrontation" to indirect "accommodation" politics, absorbing some of Narayan's proposals (at least in form) in an effort to deflate his platform and thereby weaken his effectiveness."

"The prime minister has, in Narayan, the most formidable challenge to her personal authority since coming to power, and the only phenomenon of its kind since Mahatma Gandhi took on the British Raj," the ambassador added.

Wikileaks: Sanjay behind attempt to oust WB CM SS Ray

A confidential diplomatic cable dated December 23, 1976 sent from the US embassy Delhi to Washington mentioned that a prominent Congress MP had recently told the political counselor that the family (Indira Gandhi's family) was determined to remove SS Ray from the post of West Bengal CM at some point and that the "prestige of Sanjay Gandhi has been placed on the line in this affair, and for Ray to remain in office indefinitely would be a serious loss of face for him."

Reflecting on Mrs Gandhi's tactic, it said: "We tend to view the present compromise (if it happens) as an example of one of Mrs Gandhi's favorite tactics when confronted with an obstreperous problem: maintain the facade and yet gradually reduce the power and influence of the person in question."

The same cable also said: "Ray will be allowed to stay in office, but will lose the home ministry portfolio. The six-man committee to oversee the state's administration will obviously be a powerful check on the chief minister's latitude for political movement, if it works at all. Ray may find that the trappings of the chief ministership will increasingly lose their luster as his power is progressively circumscribed."

Wikileaks: When the British began watering American Bourbon whisky

A diplomatic cable dated May 8, 1973 released by Wikileaks and sent from the Europe US Mission in Brussels to Washington DC stated that the British were watering imported American Bourbon whisky and selling it to the Germans.

"EC customs officials have informed the mission privately that they have just learned that the British are watering our whiskey and selling it to the Germans," the cable said.

"German customs have notified EC customs officials that they have just received a shipment of "finest four year old Bourbon whiskey" from the Red Lion Blending Co Ltd, 1st the village, North End Way, London NW 3, accompanied by a certificate issued by HM Customs, Glasgow."

"The certificate states that the product consists of 15,756 liters of bourbon whiskey produced in the United States to which 935 gallons of water have been added producing a total quantity of 20,352.4 liters of 'finest four year old'. The original US product had an alcoholic content of 55.1 degrees Gay Lussac, but the additional water has reduced the final products to 43.3 degrees Gay Lussac.

Prequel to Bofors

Prequel to Bofors: WikiLeaks' revelation on Rajiv Gandhi's role as a middleman for a Swedish firm evokes cynicism and deja vu in equal measure.India Today reports.

The commonly held political narrative is this: Rajiv Gandhi, the good son, led an essentially low-key life as an Indian Airlines pilot. Untouched by scandal or even the trappings of power before being thrust into politics by an air crash and into power by an assassination. Now, leaked classified cables, from the US Embassy in New Delhi to Washington, put a dramatic new spin on this narrative.

A cable from October 21, 1975, speaks of a closely-fought deal between three European manufacturers to supply 140 jets to the Indian Air Force. The cable quotes a Swedish diplomat revealing the ace up his sleeve to his US counterparts: "The main Indian negotiator with the Swedes at New Delhi end has been Mrs Gandhi's oldest son, Rajiv Gandhi."

The cable was sent out from the US embassy in New Delhi four months after Indira Gandhi declared an internal Emergency. The US cable presents no evidence to support this insinuation. Even the unnamed sender in the US Embassy sounds incredulous: "Latter's (Rajiv's) only association with aircraft industry (to our knowledge) has been as a pilot for Indian Airlines. This is the first time we have heard his name as entrepreneur."

Yet, this tranche of nearly 1.7 mil-lion secret cables between 1973 and 1976 offered the powerful Henry Kissinger, who was both secretary of state and national security adviser, a bird's eye view of the frenetic political power churn in India's capital. Indira Gandhi had exhausted a tidal wave of goodwill from her victory over Pakistan in the 1971 war. A war where she resisted US sabre-rattling in the Bay of Bengal-the Seventh Fleet led by the USS Enterprise-and courted the Soviet Union with a 20-year Friendship Treaty signed in 1971. By 1974, India had tested a nuclear weapon, which, the US cables believed, was done to offset "general domestic gloom" and "uncertainty".

As Indira Gandhi battled enemies, seen and unseen, her son and successor Sanjay Gandhi's fortunes were on the rise within the Congress party. He rode roughshod over party leaders, replacing Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi with Ambika Soni as Youth Congress president. Sanjay was now number 2 in the party and his rise was leavened by industry:

His car factory in Gurgaon which would manufacture the people's car, Maruti. But his rise, the US cables suggest, was also greased with graft. In the mid-1970s, Maruti Heavy Vehicles Pvt Ltd, where Sanjay was part-owner, vied for aircraft contracts for British Aircraft Corporation. A senior Maruti executive sought the assistance of the US Embassy to meet representatives of the Cessna aircraft company.

Sanjay's acolytes Kamal Nath and Ambika Soni did not escape the US Embassy's attention. One 1976 cable called Kamal Nath, then a businessman and Sanjay Gandhi confidant, a "bull in a China shop" and "a political novice" who could destroy the delicate equilibrium within the West Bengal state Congress party (the state was then ruled by the Congress) and the Left parties. Ambika Soni, was dismissed as "intellectually weak" and an "ideologically will-of-the-wisp" who had informal access to the (Gandhi) household and could be counted on carrying out its instructions.

A mole within Indira Gandhi's household kept the US Embassy informed of her moves, according to WikiLeaks. The US Embassy correctly predicted that she would end the Emergency and call for elections in 1977. A cable dating to the middle of 1976, attributes this information to a "household source" within the prime minister's residence. The identity of this source, however, was not revealed. Yet the younger Gandhi scion's steep ascent within the party did not go unchallenged. At least two Congress leaders, Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi and A.K. Antony, opposed him at the AICC's 1976 session in Guwahati. "What sacrifices has he made for the party or the country?" Antony asked then.

But this political intrigue was small change when it came to the fighter contract of the 1970s. The Indian Air Force's requirement for 140 "deep penetration and strike aircraft" that could fly in fast and low and bomb enemy targets, had electrified western arms manufacturers. The contract was worth an estimated Rs.1,600 crore (India's defence budget in 1975 was Rs.2,157 crore) and suffused with Cold War intrigue.

Indira Gandhi, according to the cables "personally dominated negotiations without involvement of air force officials". The Swedish diplomat says "she vehemently opposed the Jaguar because she was prejudiced against the British". Her interference naturally brightened the prospects of the Frenchbuilt Mirage F-1 and the Swedish 'Viggen' built by Saab-Scania. The Viggen was a neutral but expensive option: It was built with US technical assistance.

US assent was vital for sales to a third country. So were top political contacts. "The Swedes have made it clear that they understand the importance of family influences in the final decision in the fighter sweepstakes," the 1975 cable says. "Our colleague describes Rajiv Gandhi in flattering terms and contends his technical expertise is of a high level. Offhand, we would have thought a transport pilot not the best expert to rely upon evaluating a fighter plane but then we are speaking of a transport pilot who has another and perhaps more relevant qualification."

The Congress has rubbished these revelations. Congress General Secretary Janardan Dwivedi said the cables were not based on evidence and accused WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange of "spreading lies and falsehoods". "The cable says that there was no additional information to either refute or confirm the information. The foundation of the whole story falls flat here," he says. Spokesperson of Saab refused comment. "We don't comment on third, or in this case maybe even fourth or fifth-hand sources."

Congress leader Ambika Soni refused to comment saying that the Congress party had already given a statement. However, she too questioned the credibility of the cables, which she said made "no difference to anybody's life 40 years later". Former Congressman Akbar Ahmed 'Dumpy', who was close to Sanjay Gandhi, termed the leaks as "ridiculous conjectures". "It also sounds hard to believe that Indira Gandhi wanted to share nuclear technology with Pakistan," he added.

The 1978 IAF contract was bagged by British Aerospace's Jaguar. The US refused to clear the Viggen sale to India. The Jaguar trumped the Frenchbuilt Mirage and the deal was signed by the Morarji Desai-led Janata Party government which came to power in 1977. But even the Jaguar was hounded by controversy. The November 1978 issue of Surya, a magazine edited by Maneka Gandhi, alleged then defence minister Jagjivan Ram's son Suresh Kumar had taken kickbacks in the deal. Ram denied the allegations in Parliament.

A decade later, another Swedish manufacturer, Bofors AB, would haunt Rajiv Gandhi and force his government out of power in 1989. This 1970s contract for IAF had an eerie recent replay. The Viggen's successor, the Gripen, battled Dassault's Rafale, Russia's MiG, US F-16 and F-18 and the Eurofighter for a Rs.82,000 crore contract to supply 126 aircraft for IAF. In October 2010, a year before IAF zeroed in on the Rafale as the finalist, a representative of Saab briefed a group of visiting international journalists that the contract for 126 Indian fighter jets had moved into the "political phase". "In the political phase, climb rates, turning radii and cockpit displays of the aircraft don't matter," the Saab representative shrugged. Little, it seems, has changed since the 1970s.

US found Indira 'unpredictable'

It wasn't just Indira Gandhi that the US administration under Richard Nixon disliked.

TN Kaul, a close aide of the then Prime Minister Gandhi, and the man handpicked by her as India's US ambassador in 1973, was described by the American envoy in India as "arrogant," pro-Soviet and as a man not to be trusted, in cables sent to the US State Department, and accessed by transparency watchdog Wikileaks.

"Kaul, like Nehru family, is Kashmiri Brahmin, assured to the point of arrogance by birth," Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the US ambassador to India wrote to the State Department secret service on March 17, 1973

"His career has been marked by a pro-Soviet bias and concomitant Anti-American words and deeds."

In the cable, Moynihan accepted that he had not met Kaul personally, but had heard enough from other Western diplomats about the PM's aide to conclude that he was "inclined towards slyness, especially in his dealings with westerners."

"This latter quality is not only Kashmiri Brahmanical arrogance, it also reflects Kaul's propensity for misconstruing cleverness for sophistication in diplomatic dealings," Moynihan wrote, before calling Kaul "distasteful and trying." Kaul had already been foreign secretary under Gandhi.

According to Moynihan, one NATO ambassador on hearing about Kaul's appointment to Washington "seized an embassy official by the lapels and suggested that the US could not possibly extend agreement to Kaul."

Moynihan quotes former US ambassador Foy Kohler as a "slick opportunist." In another cable, the former Indian ambassador to the US, GL Mehta indicated that he did not believe Kaul was the right choice for the post of ambassador to the US.

But the cables also point to the recognition among the Americans that Kaul was a direct Indira Gandhi appointee, and was a "sensitive weathervane of Indian foreign policy."

"He will seek to improve relations with the US if that is GOI policy, and will criticize our actions, if so instructed," Moynihan wrote.

"If the wind veers, he shifts with it immediately."

YB Chavan possible counter to Indira Gandhi: US

Yashwantrao Chavan, finance minister under Indira Gandhi was a key politician courted by the Americans as a possible counter to the Prime Minister, who US President Richard Nixon famously abused.

The latest tranche of US diplomatic cables accessed by transparency watchdog Wikileaks, and released publicly today, mention Chavan more often than any other minister in the Gandhi cabinet. At a time when references to Gandhi and close aides like TN Kaul were mostly acerbic, the US embassy lobbied to get Chavan a chance to meet Henry Kissinger, Nixon's secretary of state, a cable written by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the US ambassador to India to the State Department secret service on March 17 suggests.

"You should know that Chavan is one of the few ministers here with a political base of his own, and is considered a potential rival to the Prime Minister," Moynihan wrote.

'Indian begging bowl'

US diplomats believed the first state visit of Soviet president Leonid Brezhnev to India in 1973 might have fetched the "Indian begging bowl" very little but platitudes, according to the latest round of leaked WikiLeaks cables.Soon after the high-profile visit where the two countries signed the friendship treaty, the Embassy analysed the joint statement that emphasised on the two countries trying to stick to their respective positions.

Pointing to news reports about "alleged soviet commitments to supply petroleum, newsprint, metals, it said "unless this is true, the Indian begging bowl will contain very little but platitudes". Many other US cables had gleefully noted how the Indians were repeatedly asking the Soviets for grains, a request that was turned down on several ocassions.

Don't reduce security for Indian embassy: US envoy to Washington  

In 1973, when India and the US shared a troubled relationship, the American state department was contemplating reducing the security for the Indian embassy in Washington DC.

But US ambassador to India Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote a strongly worded letter to his political bosses, cautioning them about the possible repercussions of culling security from the Indian mission.

"India's serious concern with terrorist threats is evidenced by security measures taken to protect ranking officials and installations in India," Moynihan wrote.

"In circumstances, it is our judgment that GOI will not take kindly to withdrawal of protection from Indian embassy in Washington, particularly in light of fact that they are providing extensive protection to our ambassador, deputy chief of mission and embassy."

'Indira Gandhi unpredictable'

Those were the Soviet days. And the US was apprehensive about the anti-American voices that permeated the Indian political life. There many diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks that show how US kept a close tab on these developments and always found then prime minister Indira Gandhi favourably disposed towards the Soviet Union.

One of the cables term Gandhi's response can be "completely unpredictable". The US was worried about the epithets it had received such "fascist, imperialists, "the imperialist power" not wanting "democracy and socialism in India."

'Whipping up crisis atmosphere'

In a cable in 1974, the US mission takes a special note of Gandhi hitting out at the "foreign critics", including the US after the nuclear test in the same year.

"The continuing campaign by J P Narayan in Bihar and the economic situation are getting to her, perhaps she is whipping up a crisis atmosphere to prepare people for tougher economic measures", says a cable. The US and the west had raised strong objections to India going nuclear and a slew of sanctions followed.

Authoritarian drift and democracy card

In one of the cables assessing Gandhi, US finds a "slow authoritarian shift" despite India having "institutional checks". But the cable says that US should work closely with India which remains one of the few functioning democracies in South Asia. "India has so far remained the principal reminder in under-developed Asia that political freedoms can survive if the will exists…. It is in the interests of the US to see democracy flourish in India" And the cable admits there is little that the US can do to affect India's political system.

US looked at Chavan to limit Soviet influence

A cable dated September 16, 1975 has revealed that the US intended to use then Indian foreign minister YB Chavan to limit Soviet influence in India. The US also wanted to use him repair India's external relations that was "upset" in 1971.

At the same time, the US also wanted limit the level of their involvement in India and "above all avoid creating over-expectations regarding the benefits which might accrue from improved relations."

"We recommend that the secretary brief Chavan on our relations with the USSR and China to demonstrate that they support our objective of stability in South Asia. He should brief Chavan on our view of recent events in Bangladesh, pointing out that our only interest is in stability and that our activities are humanitarian.

The Secretary should frankly discuss our relations with Pakistan, explaining that we are engaged in technical discussions of us arms sales of transfers, that these will be carried out in accordance with the policy we announced last winter."

US had 'sources' even in the PM's household

The United States had sources even inside then PM Indira Gandhi's house who provided it with the goings on inside the household, a diplomatic cable dated June 27, 1975 has revealed. The US officials had spoken to many of these sources after declaration of Emergency.

The cable referring to a spate of transfers of senior officials who opposed the declaration of Emergency said: "According to a source in the PM's household entourage, this was the key reason for the sudden transfer of home secretary Mukerjee to civil aviation and tourism at the beginning of this week."

The cable adds: "The names most commonly heard as the key figures behind Mrs Gandhi at this point are her son, Sanjay Gandhi and her secretary, Dhawan. This is confirmed by a source close to the PM's household. Both are non-ideological, extremely authoritarian in their general approach, and focused only on keeping Mrs Gandhi in power."

Indira almost told US envoy off

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi took "mild exception" to US Ambassador to India, Daniel Patrick Moynihan's description of India as a "world power during their first meeting, according to a cable.

Mrs Gandhi told Moynihan that India did not believe in "power politics", probably mocking at US hegemonic policies. Mrs Gandhi then said that in any case, India "did not have the resources to act as other nations had done in the past".

She also wished Moynihan a "fruitful mission" although "you have not made a good beginning". Clearly, the meeting did not go down will with the prime minister.

The cables pertain to 1973-1976, the years when Henry Kissinger was the US secretary of state in the Nixon and Ford Administrations

The Americans made serious efforts to placate Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and assuage her concerns over military aid to Pakistan, and at one point, promising no new military support.

Describing his first meeting with Indira Gandhi, ambassador Moynihan states in a cable that the US president (Nixon) wanted to explicitly "stress" that America would not "supply lethal arms to any nation of the subcontinent".

The US "hopes to develop a new relationship between our nations on the basis of mutual respect for each other' s interests", he said.

"WE," Moynihan said,"for example very much hope the Shimla accord will move forward." He added: "We have recognized Bangladesh, and are providing a great deal of aid to that nation, and expect it will continue to need such aid for a considerable while."

"In a word, we hope for a normal relationship with India as of one world power to another."

Moynihan, a former senator from New York, was US ambassador to India from 1973 to 1975. He believed the US fought in Vietnam to "save India from going communist".

'India not rational on Pak'

The US, in the aftermath of the creation of Bangladesh, was worried over the possibility of Pakistan collapsing and wanted to help it "economically" and "politically", according the Kissinger cables released by Wikileaks.

The cable states Indians could not think "rationally" on Pakistan and although Indian leaders "intellectually" favoured a united Pakistan, emotionally they thought otherwise.

"Everyone should help, but India, which could do the most, was not cooperating. If India was intellectually committed to Pakistan' s unity and Bhutto' s success, why then did it put obstacles in the way? Reason was because Indians could not think rationally on subject of Pakistan," the cable states.

Cable documents India's struggle with food

US diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks reveal India's troublesome food security situation during 1970s, a far cry from today's food surplus situation.

India had massive problems with US food aid, including contamination, according to a cable, which captures India's precarious food situation when it had to depend on US wheat imports, under a food programme called PL480.

The presence of "Jimson weed seed" was a particular concern. "Current food situation in India remains serious but no further deterioration apparent in past week. Presence of jimson weed seed in imported grain may delay distribution imported food grains," the cable stated.

There was uproar in Parliament over weed-contaminated wheat and milo grains and also in Maharashtra and Rajasthan, where "most imported milo (were) to be consumed".

Food officials "took calm attitude" toward the problem and assured furious Opposition leaders that milo containing "Jimson seed" would be cleaned on a mass scale before being  released for consumption.

The government was considering a proposal to approach the World Food Programme for food assistance in drought stricken areas, while food inflation was spiraling.

"All India official wholesale foodgrain price index during week ending February 10, 1973, averaged 259, compared to 256 during previous week and corresponding week January. Rising trend in foodgrain prices generally continued throughout February," the cable said.

US officials warned about immigration to Assam

Immigration from Bangladesh to Assam shocked Daniel Patrick Moynihan, US ambassador to India, during a trip to Assam in March 1974, a recently-released confidential Wikileaks diplomatic cable has revealed.

"The overriding problem in Assam perhaps is the rising population pressure. The state has the highest demographic growth rate in India--3.7 percent--reflecting rapid natural growth and continuing immigration from Bangladesh and Nepal. This has caused grave economic and ethic/political problems which can be expected to worsen," Moynihan reported to Washington.

"In rice, the principle crop, Assam is now barely self-sufficient and districts that were, until recently, surplus…More significant perhaps is continuing immigration of Bengali Muslims from Bangladesh," he added.

'Ray's run in with Sanjay forced him out of PMs inner circle'

A cable from then Calcutta sent on July 24, 1975 says that though rumours in the first two weeks of emergency indicated West Bengal CM Siddharth Shankar Ray's moving to the Centre as home or foreign minister, 'a run-in of some sort with Sanjay Gandhi' as the reason for Ray's distancing from PM's inner circle. "There are a lot of nasty stories circulating here about Sanjay."

'Sanjay's attempts to widen influence might fireback'

A cable of December 18, 1975 says that Sanjay Gandhi has been placing his men in positions of power and exerting influence against the Leftist parties and others, which is drawing discontent. "Sanjay has so far proceeded slowly, methodically and successfully. But the chance for him to make mistakes or to build an anti-Sanjay and indirectly an anti-Mrs Gandhi lobby may increase as he attempts to widen his personal influence and activities and operates more publicly."

Sanjay's meet with ambassador

The Cables reveal the keen interest the US officials were showing in the activities of Sanjay Gandhi. A cable sent from New Delhi to the US Department of State on April 28, 1976 on the subject of the law of sea negotiations, mentions the presence of Gandhi's household members - Sanjay and Rajiv Gandhi and their wives at a dinner event. "To our knowledge, this is the first social occasion involving foreign ambassadors which Sanjay Gandhi has attended," it says.

Sanjay and Maruti Limited

A cable of December 23, 1976 on Maruti Limited tells that Sanjay Gandhi is the managing director of the company and that he is the second son of PM Gandhi. "He underwent a three year training program as an apprentice in the auto-mobile division of the Rolls Royce Company of England. The board of directors of ML consists of businessmen, all of whom are highly regarded and posses substantial financial means."

A K Antony refused to support Sanjay Gandhi: WikiLeaks

A K Antony was "one of the only" leaders apart from Priyaranjan Dasmunsi who "flatly criticized" Sanjay Gandhi during 1976 AICC session in Guwahati during Emergency when the latter's political graph was on the rise, US diplomatic cables have claimed.

The cables, made public by WikiLeaks, also said the party faction led by Antony, the Kerala unit president, refused to support Sanjay and questioned his "rapid ascent to a position of power" asking "what sacrifices he has made for the party or the country".

On the Guwahati AICC session and Youth Congress conclave, the cables said, Sanjay was the star attraction and he received top billing as the prime mover behind the organization's revitalization and as a national leader second only to his mother Indira Gandhi.

"He still may be number two, but Sanjay and company keep on trying harder," the cable sent on November 26, 1976 said.

Despite all the fanfare for Sanjay and the Youth Congress, the cables said, US diplomats in Delhi continue to hear and see no evidence that the quality of YC membership "improved measurably".

"Kerala Congress president A K Antony was one of the only leaders to flatly criticize the new Youth Congress and Sanjay. The other key critic was West Bengal Congress leader P R Dasmunsi," it said.

The cable went on to analyse that in the next year, ie 1977, unhappiness among Congressmen and the organisational ineffectiveness will become an increasing problem.

"... the effect of the Guwahati session has probably been to increase unhappiness inside Congress, increase confidence among Youth Congress leaders and further diminish any air of democracy within the Congress organisation," it said.

In another cable which talks about Sanjay's unpopularity in Kerala, it is said that talks with a variety of people in May 1976 left them with the impression that Indira's second son was "not very popular" in the state.

It said newsmen whom they met "resented" Sanjay's "rapid build up" saying that he was known only for his association with Maruti. The newsmen told US officials that Sanjay was not a politician and that he does not posses any qualities that were needed for political leadership.

"Predictably, the KPCC faction led by state home minister K Karunakaran supports Sanjay, as does one section of the Kerala Youth Congress.

"The wing of KPCC led by A K Antony and the other faction of the Youth Congress do not support him. Antony and those refusing to support Sanjay question his rapid ascent to a position of power, asking themselves, we understand, what sacrifices he has made for the party or the country," it said.

It said the Kerala Youth Congress is somewhat more radical than the other states and Sanjay's policies are not popular in Kerala.

Fernandes sought CIA funds during Emergency: WikiLeaks

Diplomatic cables released on Monday by WikiLeaks claimed that senior JD(U) leader and former convenor of NDA George Fernandes sought funds from the Central Intelligence Agency during the Emergency and asked French labour attache Manfred Turlach to suggest CIA contacts.

The US labour counsellor was also approached by a Fernandes acquaintance to arrange a meeting between him and the US ambassador, the declassified cables said in a revelation that suggests the socialist leader was ready to forego his political allergy of America to seek monetary assistance to fight the Indira Gandhi regime.

In his conversations with Turlach, Fernandes is shown claiming that he had a band of 300 people involved in sabotage activities liking blowing up railway bridges in the south and a bridge between Mumbai and Pune besides setting Mumbai dock and the LIC building in Chennai on fire. One cable showed Fernandes stating in November 1975 that "he was even prepared to accept money from the USA".

Fernandes is suffering from Alzheimer's and could not be contacted for his version. The veteran socialist leader, who burst into the national spotlight after be brought the country to a halt by organizing a railway strike, was not perceived to be friendly to the US. In fact, he shut down the operations of Coca Cola and IBM when he was industry minister in the Janata government. However, it is acknowledged that his animus towards Congress, especially during the Emergency, may have pushed the leader to take extreme measures, including seeking US assistance.

Fernandes was arrested in what came to be known as the Baroda dynamite case for allegedly trying to set off explosions at government installations to protest against the suspension of democracy during the Emergency.

A trade union colleague of Fernandes said, "In the battle between means and end, he has rarely let means come in the way of end. It does not surprise me that George sought CIA help and as a minister in the Janata government, threw Coca Cola and IBM out of the country."

Interestingly, news of Fernandes, a known US-baiter, having sought CIA funding did not evoke an angry rejection from JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav, his colleague of many years. Promising to look into the Wikileaks disclosure, Yadav, who also made his political mark during the Emergency, cautioned that the cable had not been authenticated by anybody.

"Main is mamle ki gehrai mein jaaonga (I'll look into the matter in detail)," Yadav, the NDA convener and national president of JD(U), said. "It must be said though that there are more serious cases of corruption in the present times and one has to first address these," he added.

A few kilometers away from Yadav's Lutyens residence, a senior trade union leader who worked closely with Fernandes during the Emergency years, often acting as his errand boy, was least perturbed with the news about his mentor.

Sitting in his central Delhi office that has seen better days, Fernandes's junior did not want his memories to be sullied by the new allegations. He did not even want to come on record. "I have better memories of the man. At this stage, the best way to analyze him is not to analyze him. Draw a chart of his career and he will be right in front of you, full of ambivalence, ambiguity, hypocritical, fighter, friend's friend, slippery and charmer. The only constant thread running through George's life has been his deep seated hatred for the Congress. All his actions should be interpreted keeping that in mind," he said.

He clearly remembers Fernandes getting upset with IBM and Coca Cola just because someone told him the two US giants had bribed Indira Gandhi. "That was enough to annoy him. He saw these two companies as Congress stooges," he added.

The senior trade union leader did odd campaign jobs for Fernandes during the 1967 election against S K Patil in north Bombay constituency. "Trouncing a heavyweight like S K Patil fully established him on the national stage. He was touted as the face of the future. But hypocritical nature did him in," he said.

The union leader listed a series of acts by Fernandes that explained the man. Fernandes created a crisis during the Janata government raising questions on dual membership of Jana Sangh leaders and many years later became an integral part of the NDA. When the Morarji Desai government was on the verge of losing out, he passionately defended his prime minister and government in Parliament and a few hours later, joined Desai's bete noire Charan Singh.

WikiLeaks: Businessman's offer to sell India's uranium set alarm bells ringing in US

An offer to sell uranium pilfered from India's nuclear facilities by a businessman claiming to be a relative of a Nepalese diplomat set off a flurry of mails between US missions in late 1973.

A series of discussions among US diplomats, consultations with Indian nuclear establishment and tests on samples provided by the Nepalese person, however, revealed that the offer was a hoax.

The Kissinger cables, released by WikiLeaks, gave a glimpse into the hectic exchange of cables involving India as the purported fissile material was claimed to have smuggled out from nuclear facilities in "Bombay area".

It all started with a cable from the US embassy in Kathmandu on September 26, 1973 informing officials in the State Department about a Nepalese businessman J C Thakur contacting them and offering to sell upto three kgs of uranium per month at the rate of USD 40,000 per kilo.

"He indicated that U-235 would be smuggled out to him from nuclear power facilities in Bombay area," the cable said, adding that Thakur had also offered to provide sample for analysis.

Thakur, who claimed to be a brother of Nepal's ambassador to Japan, also told his contact in the US embassy that he would offer uranium to other embassies in Kathmandu, including that of Germany, China and Japan if the US government was not interested in buying it.

Another cable from New Delhi to the State Department sought guidance on bringing the matter to the attention of the Indian government contending that the action could be a "confidence game".

"We believe that leveling with the GoI on this case would contribute to the atmosphere of trust and confidence in which we would like to deal with the Indians on peaceful uses of nuclear energy," it said.

A cable from Kathmandu dated October 10, 1973 talks about sending a sample of the purported uranium for testing.

Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State, informed the US missions in Delhi, Mumbai and Kathmandu on October 16 that preliminary indications were that the sample material was not radioactive.

Two days later, Kissinger followed up with a telegram informing that an analysis by the Atomic Energy Commission showed that the sample was primarily iron with small quantities of manganese.

It appears that India was also kept in the loop by the Americans as Kissinger directed the mission in New Delhi to inform Homi Sethna, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission about the findings.

A second sample from Kathmandu was also tested by the US a month later and found that it was not uranium.

"Although we do not wish to encourage what appears to have been hoax offers, Embassy requested (sic) report future similar approaches and to accept samples if offered, for forwarding to department and routine testing by AEC," a cable from Washington dated November 6, 1973 said.