scorpio90 Posted April 20, 2014 Posted April 20, 2014 http://www.sunday-guardian.com/news/obama-quietly-reverses-hillarys-get-modi-policy#.U1LL9E0B8F8.twitter President Barack Obama has quietly reversed a policy initiated by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to "get Narendra Modi" — ostensibly for the 2002 Gujarat riots, but in actuality "for taking stands that may be different from that favoured by the US administration" — in the words of a senior analyst in New York. "Hillary Clinton likes to operate through NGOs, which are given funding through indirect channels, and which target individuals and countries seen as less than respectful to her views on foreign and domestic policy in the target countries," a retired US official now based in Atlanta said. He claimed that "rather than US NGOs, (the former) Secretary of State Clinton favoured operating through organisations based in the Netherlands, Denmark and the Scandinavian countries, especially Norway" as these were outside the radar of big power politics. These NGOs were active in the agitation against the Russian nuclear power plant at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu, with "funding coming mainly from a religious organisation based in Europe that has close links with France". Incidentally, French companies are in direct competition with Russian rivals in seeking to expand the market for nuclear reactors in India. The senior official, now on a visit to India, claimed that "your (i.e. the Manmohan Singh) government has full details of the religious organisation involved in funding the Kudankulam protests, but is keeping this secret as the organisation has high-level backers" in the UPA. These present and retired officials claimed that "during the tenure in office of Secretary Clinton, several expert teams in the guise of NGOs were sent to Gujarat to try and find mass graves". The purpose was to then take the matter to the Office of the UN Commissioner of Human Rights in Geneva as an example of genocide. "In 2011, some bones were discovered in a Gujarat field by one of the search teams and there was much excitement, but these were later found to be buffalo bones", an official said. The official added that "no evidence whatsoever of mass graves was uncovered in Gujarat despite six years of clandestine searching for them" by undercover experts posing as representatives of NGOs. He added that "five politicians, three from the state and two in Delhi, assisted the search teams, but the information given by them proved unproductive". Finally, "now that Secretary Clinton had stepped down from office, by end-2012 orders were given to stop wasting time on the search for mass graves in Gujarat, much to the dismay of those NGOs who were getting significant funding as a consequence of the search operations". Interestingly, the senior official claimed that because of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's inability to water down the Nuclear Liability Act and Defence Minister A.K. Antony's decision to prefer the French Rafale fighter to its US rival, "orders were given to activate the Khalistan file so as to create embarrassment for Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh". Another official, now retired, claimed that "since 2011, several search teams have been active in Punjab, seeking human remains in suspected mass graves". According to them, "key politicians in Punjab have assisted these search teams and on occasion even provided logistical facilities for them". These officials claim that the recent decision by the US Aviation Authority to ban extra flights into the US by Indian carriers was "directly linked to US displeasure over the strong Indian response to the Devyani Khobragade episode, especially as they had been privately assured by senior officials that the fallout of an arrest would be routine and perfunctory". Another example of misuse of public interest bodies cited was the recent decision by the UK Automobile Safety Authority to classify five India-produced small car models as unsafe, "or exactly the same models that are offering competition to European and US vehicles in the European market". They said that such steps were "protectionism in the guise of safety" and that "the Manmohan Singh government's passivity in responding to such unilateral measures encouraged more of them to get slapped on India". Coming back to the BJP's PM candidate Narendra Modi, these sources say that the Obama administration has dialled back on the hectic efforts by Hillary Clinton to paint the Gujarat CM as guilty of mass murder and even genocide. "This is clear from the latest report of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, which has sharply scaled back its criticism of the Modi government as compared to earlier reports". According to a senior official, "President Obama does not share Hillary Clinton's confrontational approach and her preference for Sonia Gandhi, and is looking to establish a pragmatic partnership with India should Modi become the Prime Minister". Hence the search "for a US envoy who would be different from (former ambassador) Nancy Powell's Clinton-style hostile approach to Modi, and to find an individual who could be expected to bond with the new PM and his team". According to these sources, President Obama "is alarmed at the steep downslide in India-US ties caused by Hillary-style crusades, and wants the relationship to be even better than what it was under the Bush presidency". Recent remarks by Narendra Modi indicate that the BJP's standard bearer is ready to reciprocate the hand of amity proffered by Team Obama to the BJP's PM nominee.
G_B_ Posted April 20, 2014 Posted April 20, 2014 the us have done this in china as well. They use religious (read christian) ngos to drum up protests.
hhunaeh Posted April 20, 2014 Posted April 20, 2014 :haha: resembles something you used to find in a pakistani forum. Now they have gotten wise.
scorpio90 Posted April 20, 2014 Author Posted April 20, 2014 US embassy faces I-T inquiry, urges 'understanding' http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/us-embassy-faces-i-t-inquiry-pitches-for-understanding/article1-1199616.aspx An income tax inquiry now threatens the delicately poised Indo-US relationship, highly-placed government sources have told HT. The ministry of external affairs (MEA) has conveyed the inquiry details to the US embassy. Coming close on the heels of the spat involving diplomat Devyani Khobragade, rattled American diplomats are now urging India to arrive at ''an understanding.'' Despite reminders from the MEA, the US embassy, is yet to provide details of how many teachers are employed at the American Embassy School in violation of visa and tax laws. The inquiry into what officials believe could be 'a multi-crore tax evasion' saw the issue being raised by assistant secretary of state, Nisha Biswal, during her first visit to India, earlier this month. Confirming the information, MEA Spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin told HT, "These issues were raised before the assistant secretary of state. We intend to address them through the mechanism of a working group." Soon after Khobragade's arrest and strip search last December, MEA had sought detailed information on how many teachers were employed at the school, their salaries and bank account details. When asked for a comment on the probe, a US embassy spokesperson said, "We continue to engage in discussions with our Indian counterparts on all issues that have been raised through appropriate diplomatic channels." In a major embarrassment for the embassy, the New York Times had published an article in January, establishing that the teachers were in violation of Indian tax laws, because they were advised in a circulated handout to wrongly represent themselves as housewives. Quoting from the handout, NYT had said, "we usually have the male spouse apply for the 'employment' visa and the female spouse be noted as 'housewife' on the visa application." Facing the income tax heat, the US now wants to settle the issue through a broader understanding that, government sources say, would be accommodative of India's concerns. The US is caught on the wrong foot because the school has violated the 1973 agreement according to which India had granted tax exemption status to only 16 teachers. While sources said it was too early to say if a deal could be worked out, India is keen on settling two issues to avoid a repeat of the Khobragade affair. For one, it wants to settle the privileges and immunities of its consulate staff, which are currently not at par with diplomats. Secondly, India wants domestics employed by diplomats in US to be subjected to Indian law, were another dispute to arise, as it did in the case of Khobragade and her domestic help, Sangeeta Richards.
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