New Delhi: 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 cables said in a revelation that suggests the socialist leader was ready to forego his political allergy of the US to seek monetary assistance to fight the Indira 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, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s, couldn’t be contacted. The socialist leader, who burst into the national spotlight after be brought the country to a halt by a railway strike, was not perceived to be friendly to the US. He shut down the operations of Coca Cola and IBM when he was industry minister. However, his animus towards the Congress, especially during the Emergency, may have pushed him to take extreme measures, including seeking US assistance.
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.”
Courtesy:
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIM/2013/04/09&PageLabel=13&EntityId=Ar01302&ViewMode=HTML
The US labour counsellor was also approached by a Fernandes acquaintance to arrange a meeting between him and the US ambassador, the cables said in a revelation that suggests the socialist leader was ready to forego his political allergy of the US to seek monetary assistance to fight the Indira 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, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s, couldn’t be contacted. The socialist leader, who burst into the national spotlight after be brought the country to a halt by a railway strike, was not perceived to be friendly to the US. He shut down the operations of Coca Cola and IBM when he was industry minister. However, his animus towards the Congress, especially during the Emergency, may have pushed him to take extreme measures, including seeking US assistance.
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.”
Courtesy:
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIM/2013/04/09&PageLabel=13&EntityId=Ar01302&ViewMode=HTML
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