Whistleblower and founder of WikiLeaks, Shri Julian Assange, has walked free today, after spending 5 years in Britain’s jail.
Who is Julian Assange? And what is the impact of WikiLeaks on Bharat? Let us discuss below.
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Who is Julian Assange
Julian Assange is the founder of WikiLeaks, and a journalist most notably known for whistleblowing the US military and landing in jail. Born in Australia, he took to computer programming at a very young age and started hacking devices. He made a name for himself as an ethical hacker, and founded WikiLeaks in 2006 to compile and report on information given by whistleblowers.
Julian Assange has been at the forefront of Hacktivist culture (hacking and activism), and his discussions like the “Cypherpunks” discussion have set very important milestones in understanding cyber securities for citizens and countries alike.
In 2010, he was under fire for the extensive amounts of information he had leaked against the US military for waging war in Iraq, Afghanisthan and 91,00 other similar documents. The USA government accused him of espionage and filed a case against him. Several other cases, mostly false ones, regarding sexual assault in Europe, and of attempted murder in the USA, Assange seeked asylum in Ecuador.
In 2019, he was arrested in Ecuador and taken to the UK. IN 2020, Presidential Candidate Donald Trump’s lawyers guaranteed him a Presidential pardon. After much back and forth with the courts, he finally made a deal with the Americans, which led to him being released after 5 years on only one count felony against him.
As Americans are involved in politics globally, the leaks that were made by WikiLeaks also expose global politics which span across several countries which the USA is interfering in. This includes several cases in Bharat as well. Let us discuss them below:
WikiLeaks and Bharat
Simply searching “India” on WikiLeaks and you will see a plethora of articles. This includes articles on how USA thinktank Congressional Research Services (CRS) wants to bring sexist laws favoring women, pros and cons of Bharat conducting nuclear tests against the NPT, the Kingfisher-Airspeed-Deccan Airbus deal, and many many other leaks. It is surprising to see Americans know what is happening in Bharat before Bharatians themselves know of it.
One can read the partial list here in the WikiLeaks archive, or search any other keyword to see what shows up. What exactly was Julian Assange and his organization’s impact on Bharat? Let us discuss a few cases below:
Cash for Votes in 2008 Lok Sabha Elections
Julian Assange had also personally confirmed that the former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was lying about taking money for votes in the 2008 Lok Sabha election, with Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal party having 4 members who were paid ₹10 crores each by sitting members of the American Congress back then, for spending on votes.
You can watch the full interview here. Assange has also criticized the INC government for reacting poorly to this information, calling their reaction the worst in the world in an interview with Shri Arnab Goswami, which we can watch here.
The Saeed Naqvi correspondence with the American government
Wikileaks had also leaked chats of the Americans and the journalist and American insider Saeed Naqvi, father of journalist Saba Naqvi, wherein Saeed was giving insider sentiment on Rahul Gandhi to his American correspondent. Saeed Naqvi, who also covered the Beatles back in the day, was more than willing to share insider information with the Americans on several occasions.
Rahul Gandhi: The Defender of Coca Cola
The same leaked Saeed Naqvi emails had also discussed Rahul Gandhi at length. It stated that while INC insiders like Saeed Naqvi were ready to write off Rahul Gandhi, the American government was not ready to do the same. The Americans saw “great potential in Rahul Gandhi”. The email cited that the reason the Americans are interested in Rahul Gandhi is because he advocated for not closing a Coca Cola plant despite it being found to put pesticides in their products to cut costs, citing that globalization is more important, no matter the human cost of it.
Observations of the Americans on Communists
The WikiLeaks has also shown that the Communist Party of India has been actively “revisionist” in nature, seeking to rebrand history and change it to have a neo-Marxist perspective. I have discussed Marxist historians of China here. This sort of revisionism without indigenous perspective is horrible and against the will of the indigenous people of Bharat.
The same email also said that the CPI acknowledges that China is a totalitarian state, and that its oligarchic system is opposed by the communists in Bharat. This stance against oligarchy is respectable. The CPI is also increasingly worried about Nepal’s decreasing interest in communism, which may lead to a civilizational revival in Nepal.
As most leaks of WikiLeaks are USA centric and not China centric, we may never truly know what the CPI truly thinks, but besides their revisionist goals, their stance against oligarchy and totalitarianism is respectable in theory, if not always manifested to reality in practice.
INC’s Kamal Nath leaking information on the Pokhran-II test
The most insidious of all was Kamal Nath’s information given to the Americans about the nuclear program that Bharat was about to carry out. This was the Pokhran nuclear test, and the INC leader Kamal Nath (who has also been indicted in the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom and his case remains pending today). In the same email, Kamal Nath brags that he gave this information to the Americans merely to gain their trust, and if they were happy with the information he gave them, they can contact him for further assistance. Those involved in such security breaches must be put to trial. Justice delayed is justice denied.
Wanting the BJP in power in 2014… but not Narendra Modi?
The Americans also followed the 2014 elections and the BJP’s rise very closely. Wanting to overthrow the INC and Manmohan Singh for disobeying America in the Indo-US nuclear deal, the Americans interfered in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
The Americans had pinned their hope on LK Advani becoming the next Prime Minister, and worked towards that end. It was also the time when the BBC started slandering the former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh a “mute PM” and Shahbaz Sharif attacked Manmohan Singh, which many in the BJP carried forward as a line against the INC.
It was Shri Narendra Modi who opposed this slander of Manmohan Singh by these foreign parties despite the BJP’s opinions of the time, and he continues to call him a great Prime Minister despite being critical of Manmohan Singh’s pro-Sharia communist policies. These policies are believed to be pushed under political pressure of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), against Manmohan Singh’s wishes. The CWC is widely recognized as the deepstate of the INC. It continues to operate today and influence academia and other institutions globally.
Shri Narendra Modi, despite riding in on a wave of anti-INC in the USA which influenced the press within Bharat, was able to sideline America’s Favorite LK Advani, and nominate himself as the Prime Minister candidate in September of 2013, four days before his birthday. He continued to become Prime Minister three times in a row, despite the wishes of the West and of the Chinese.
The full email can be read here.
Rahul Gandhi’s changing goalposts
Others like Sambit Patra have shown how Rahul Gandhi was a constant correspondent to America’s ambassador to India Tim Roemer, and it was Rahul Gandhi that pointed to false cases of “Hindu extremism” to get the favor of the Americans during elections.
The fake narrative of “Hindu extremism” comes from a place to make all incidents “equal”. The truth is not fair, nor does it come in a ratio of “one is to one” (1:1). One can read more about fear mongering against Hindus here and here.
The INC must rethink its strategy on these issues, and bring up civilizational matters if they want to continue having a political future in Bharat’s loktantra (democracy).
WikiLeaks Future
Many other reports have come forth from the WikiLeaks team over time, and their embrace of technology in journalism combined with a global mindset for change has positively affected politics across the world, including Bharat. Many journalists inspired by the Assange wave today speak in favor of the progressive right wing governments globally, from the USA to Britain to Bharat. Shri Julian Assange changed the face of global politics, away from the corrupt left and towards the rational right.
We can only ascertain that, provided that WikiLeaks as an organization does not get corrupted due to the extensive jail time of Shri Assange ji, their positive work shall continue under his guidance or the guidance of a successor.
Conclusion
WikiLeaks has always done good work in the interest of the people. Since America’s interests span the globe, the WikiLeaks’s work has also impacted the world in a positive light. Much of our understanding of politics and geopolitics comes from the post-WikiLeaks work.
With the large data set provided by WikiLeaks, we may find it hard to retain all this information as active memory. However, narratives on the basis of this emerge all the time. Narratives, however, are easier to beat with selective and biased information. Hence, to celebrate an archival record like the WikiLeaks is something everyone should indulge in.
