Cong: Wiki charges baseless; Assange spreading falsehood

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange had revealed that Rajiv Gandhi was middleman for fighter jet deal

The Congress on Monday dismissed as “baseless” the news reports quoting WikiLeaks cables that former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who later died in a terrorist attack, might have been a middleman for a Swedish company called Saab Scania, which was trying to sell its Viggen fighter jets to India way back in the 1970s, much before he became the prime minister.

Congress media incharge Janardhan Dwivedi said WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was “spreading lies and falsehoods”, adding the quoted lines of the cable “was not based on any evidence.”

The Opposition BJP, however, leapt at the opportunity and demanded the Congress come clean on the allegations. BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said, “The WikiLeaks revelations are serious. Let us not forget the revelations are making two specific charges, about two of their late prime ministers Indiraji and Rajivji,” adding, “All defence deals have some relation with the Congress’ first family. They should come clean on this and all the documents should be made public.”

Dwivedi, in defence of the late prime minister, said: “Having noted what the Swede has said, the cable makes the comment that there was no additional information to either refute or confirm the information. The foundation of the whole story falls flat here.”

The leaked US cable, dated October 21, 1975, states the “Swedish Embassy Official has informed us that main negotiator with Swedes on Viggen (a fighter aircraft) at New Delhi end has been Mrs Gandhi's older son, Rajiv Gandhi. Latter's only association with aircraft industry (to our knowledge) has been as pilot for Indian airlines and this is first time we heard his name as an entrepreneur.”

Alleging that media houses were reporting such “baseless” news, Dwivedi questioned the credibility of WikiLeaks. “An agency, which had sometime back collected a lot of so-called information or got it somewhere and published quoting American Embassy.... Till date it has not been verified. I do not understand, what is the basis of what has been published in the newspaper today.”

Questioing Assange’ intentions, Dwivedi accused him of “spreading lies and falsehoods” and said he himself wants to form a political party.

Hitting out at the Opposition BJP, Dwivedi reminded the BJP of another WikiLeaks cable, which spoke of a big leader of the NDA taking money from the US intelligence agency CIA, in a reference to George Fernandes.