World Editors Forum 11, Session After Wikileaks N Ram

18th WORLD EDITORS FORUM

Session: After WikiLeaks: the next step for newspapers Title: CablegateSpeaker: Narasimhan Ram

Vienna, Reed Messe Wien

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64th WORLD NEWSPAPER CONGRESS19th WORLD EDITORS FORUM

www.wan-ifra.org/kiev2012

N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief, The Hindu 1

Cablegate: The India Cables

• Starting March 15, 2011, The Hindu

offered readers a broad spectrum of

articles and reports based on a first

selection from 5,100 India Cables,

aggregating six million words, made

available to it by WikiLeaks



• ‘15 March Over several weeks The Hindu

reveals stories of bribery in the Indian

parliament, the use by America of arms sales

for political leverage, alleged links between

the Pakistan intelligence services and the

Taliban and many more.’-- ‘Afterword’ in Julian Assange: The Unauthorised

Autobiography (Canongate, Edinburgh, 2011, page 256)



• These stories, often front-paged, and the

relevant cables were published by the

newspaper on 21 consecutive days in March-

April 2011 and more followed later

• In all, we did three redactions – to protect

vulnerable people



We made it clear on Day 1 that •our arrangement with WikiLeaks ‘involves no financial transaction and no financial obligations on either side’

•that The Hindu had ‘a detailed understanding’ with WikiLeaks on ‘the terms and modus of publication, including redactions (where, and only where, necessary) and compliance with a security protocol for protecting and handling the sensitive material’



• The newspaper was able to offer

a series of insights into India’s

foreign policy and domestic

affairs, diplomatic, political,

economic, social, cultural, and

intellectual



Our experience with WikiLeaks & Julian Assange was

•clear-sighted, with key things specified

•professional

•rule-based but flexible

•based on mutual trust

•smooth & friendly

•is ongoing



• Focus on Indo-US strategic relationship &

everything that helps or hinders it

• Range over India’s relations with neighbours,

with Russia, the EU, East Asia, Israel,

Palestine, Iran, and the rest of West Asia,

Africa, Cuba, the UN



• Cover issues and actions relating to defence

cooperation, nuclear policy, arms control, terrorism,

intelligence sharing, export control, human rights,

Indian bureacracy, environment, AfPak

• Special focus on 26/11, Kashmir, India’s policy and

dealings with Pakistan & Sri Lanka, and where the

Indian polity is headed



Who figure in WikiLeaks’ India Cache?

•Politicians of all shades, diplomats and

other officials, sleuths, business persons,

journalists, busybodies, bigwigs and

smallwigs



• One of the bribery (‘cash-for-

parliamentary-votes’) stories

triggered a new round of

prosecution and the arrest of some

politicians under the watch of the

Supreme Court of India






US Embassy Cable 162458, July 17, 2008

• 162458 7/17/2008 13:23 08 NEWDELHI 1972 Embassy New Delhi SECRET 08 KOLKATA 209 "VZCZCXRO9793OO RUEHBI RUEHCI

RUEHLH RUEHPWDE RUEHNE #1972/01 1991323ZNY SSSSS ZZHO 171323Z JUL 08FM AMEMBASSY NEW DELHITO RUEHC/SECSTATE

WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2668INFO RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVERUCNNSG/NUCLEAR SUPPLIERS GROUP

COLLECTIVERUEAIIA/CIA WASHDCRHEBAAA/DEPT OF ENERGY WASHINGTON DCRUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDCRHEHNSC/NSC

WASHDCRUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDCRUEHUNV/USMISSION UNVIE VIENNA 1566RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 6661" "S E C R E

T SECTION 01 OF 04 NEW DELHI 001972

• SIPDIS

• E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/17/2018 TAGS: PREL, PARM, TSPL, KNNP, ETTC, ENRG, TRGY, IN SUBJECT: POLITICAL BARGAINING CONTINUES

PRIOR TO KEY VOTE IN PARLIAMENT

• REF: KOLKATA 209

• Classified By: Charge D'Affaires Steven White for Reasons 1.4 (B and D)

• 1. (C) SUMMARY. Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and his delegation departed for Vienna on July 17 to brief the 35 Board

members of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and another 19 members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) on the U.S.-

India Civil Nuclear Cooperation Initiative. In Delhi, government officials responded positively to suggestions about how to address

concerns emerging from Vienna, particularly the need to begin negotiating an IAEA Additional Protocol and for the IAEA to circulate

India's (INFCIRC) already-public separation plan as an official IAEA document. Political horse-trading continued in anticipation of the

special session of parliament to consider the confidence vote on July 21 followed by the vote itself on July 22. Prime Minister

Manmohan Singh and opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani each plan to host a dinner for supporters on July 20;

the parties will presumably have to chose one or the other. An estranged Congress Party MP and three Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS)

MPs publicly stated their intention to vote against the UPA, leaving the government still clinging to a slim majority. Small parties

representing collectively about 20 votes find themselves with generous suitors; one party chief has reportedly succeeded in having the

Lucknow airport renamed after his father. The unrequited Left continued its anti-government rant, but showed signs of internal strain.

Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee refused to resign despite pressure from within the Communist party to do so and has made it

clear that he was not in favor of the Left voting with the opposition BJP against the government, a position that seems to have

resonance among comrades disinclined to face early elections.

• END SUMMARY.



• 9. (C) On July 16, PolCouns met with Captain Satish Sharma, a Congress Party MP in the Rajya Sabha, a former Indian Airlines Pilot, and a close associate of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi considered to be a very close family friend of Sonia Gandhi. Sharma mentioned that he, as well as others in the party, was working hard to ensure that the UPA government wins the confidence vote on July 22. He said that the Prime Minister, Sonia Gandhi, and Rahul Gandhi were committed to the nuclear initiative and had conveyed this message clearly to the party. Sharma said that PM Singh and others were trying to work on the Akali Dal (8 votes) through financier Sant Chatwal and others, but unfortunately it did not work out. He mentioned that efforts to encourage Shiv Sena (12 votes) to abstain were on-going. While different Congress operatives were working on different groups of MPs, Sharma said that Rahul Gandhi was personally working Omar

• NEW DELHI 00001972 003 OF 004

• Abdullah's Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (J&KNC), whose two MPs are inclined to vote in favor of the UPA. Sharma mentioned that he was also exploring the possibility of trying to get former Prime Minister Vajpayee's son-in-law Ranjan Bhattacharya to speak to BJP representatives to try to divide the BJP ranks. He mentioned that if the party wins the trust vote, they would then prefer to go for national elections in February or March 2009, which would give the UPA time to control prices and bring down inflation.

• 10. (S) Sharma's political aide Nachiketa Kapur mentioned to an Embassy staff member in an aside on July 16 that Ajit Singh's RLD had been paid Rupees 10 crore (about $2.5 million) for each of their four MPs to support the government. Kapur mentioned that money was not an issue at all, but the crucial thing was to ensure that those who took the money would vote for the government. Kapur showed the Embassy employee two chests containing cash and said that around Rupees 50-60 crore (about $25 million) was lying around the house for use as pay-offs.

• 11. (S) Another Congress Party insider told PolCouns that Minister of Commerce and Industry Kamal Nath is also helping to spread largesse. ""Formerly he could only offer small planes as bribes,"" according to this interlocutor, now he can pay for votes with jets.""


• 10. (S) Sharma's political aide Nachiketa Kapur mentioned to an Embassy staff member in an aside on July 16 that Ajit Singh's RLD had been paid Rupees 10 crore (about $2.5 million) for each of their four MPs to support the government. Kapur mentioned that money was not an issue at all, but the crucial thing was to ensure that those who took the money would vote for the government. Kapur showed the Embassy employee two chests containing cash and said that around Rupees 50-60 crore (about $25 million) was lying around the house for use as pay-offs.



• 11. (S) Another Congress Party insider told

PolCouns that Minister of Commerce and

Industry Kamal Nath is also helping to spread

largesse. ""Formerly he could only offer small

planes as bribes,"" according to this

interlocutor, now he can pay for votes with

jets.""





































Cablegate: The Pakistan Cables

In May 2011, The Hindu partnered with Dawn of

Pakistan

http://www.dawn.com/tag/wikileaks-pakistan)

and India’s NDTV 24x7 news television channelhttp://www.ndtv.com/article/world/wikileaks-pakistani-airmen-sabotaging-f-16s-

107093)

in doing a large number of articles and reports based

on the Pakistan Cables, also made available by

WikiLeaks.










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World Editors Forum 11, Session After Wikileaks N Ram