Wikileaks expose the ugly truths about Manmohan government ?

Is he a liar? Threatening to move a breach of privilege motion against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, BJP called him a liar who misled the people of the country on the contents exposed by Wikileaks. While David C. Mulford who sent many of the secret U.S. embassy cables, undoubtedly said the cables are generally accurate reports, Mammohan Singh has voiced doubts on the veracity of their contents.

PM Manmohan Singh faced the fury of the opposition on charges that he was misleading Parliament on the findings of the special parliamentary committee on the cash-for-votes scam. But earlier in the day, he refuted all the bribery allegations in both the houses of the Parliament and said, "No one from the Congress or the government indulged in any unlawful act during the July 2008 trust vote."

The U.S. embassy cables accessed by The Hindu through WikiLeaks revealed some shocking truths on the U.S. influence on the Congress-lead Indian government. The cables clearly indicate that the government bribed some of the legislatures to win the trust vote in 2008 over the controversial India-U.S. nuclear deal. Wikileaks revealed that the Congress party had assembled nearly 50-60 crores for pay offs.

In what could be seen as a failure of collective responsibility of the cabinet, a cable sent by Ambassador Timothy Roemer in August 2009 disclosed that the PM was "isolated" in his government on talks with Pakistan.

Another shocking revelation from the whistle-blower website was about the U.S. tilt in the cabinet reshuffle of 2006. Mani Shankar Aiyar, a contentious and outspoken Iran pipeline advocate was removed and 'pro-U.S.' Murli Deora was appointed as Petroleum Minister. The cable conveyed its message to its bosses in U.S. that the reshuffle with 'strong pro-US credentials' was good for furthering India-U.S. relationship, the leak which the opposition CPI(M) called is shameful and is a surrender of the government's powers to take own decisions.

However, another cable from Mulford revealed that the U.S. government tried to "put Sonia Gandhi in a box" by persuading the BJP and breaking the coalition with the Left parties. It claims that the U.S. ambassador managed the BJP in agreeing in terms that the deal was overall a 'good' one and that it was 'in the larger national interest,' with a possible promise of enactment of the BJP's own Hyde Act if and when it came to power.

The Wikileaks have added further woes to the already-battered image of the Manmohan Singh government over a slew of corruption charges. It also causes fresh headaches for the government as it comes at a time when as many as five states are preparing for the assembly elections in the coming months. Although the Congress party is trying to save its face by saying that there is no way we can verify the facts and that the WikiLeaks revelation are old charges that have been debated, discussed and rejected by the people of India, the opposition parties are in no mood to let it go as they continue to paralyze the Parliament.