Congress today trashed reportsbased on WikiLeaks claiming that late Rajiv Gandhi, muchbefore becoming Prime Minister, may have been a middleman fora Swedish company trying to sell fighter aircraft to India.
Making it clear that the allegation against Rajiv Gandhihas no basis whatsoever, party general secretary JanardanDwivedi referred to the last line of the particular cable toemphasise that there was no foundation to the allegation andand accused WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange of "spreadinglies and falsehoods."
He also urged media not to fall for "temporary gains" andadded "we are very hurt with the news" but dismissed questionson whether the party will resort to any legal action into thematter.
"Having noted what the Swede has said, the cable makesthe comment that there was no additional information to eitherrefute or confirm the information. The foundation of the wholestory falls flat here," he said quoting parts of the cable.
The leaked secret cable claimed that Gandhi was the "mainIndian negotiator" for a massive aircraft deal for which his"family" connections were seen as valuable.
The cable dated October 21, 1975 says that the "SwedishEmbassy Official has informed us that main negotiator withSwedes on Viggen (a fighter aircraft) at New Delhi end hasbeen Mrs Gandhi's older son, Rajiv Gandhi. Latter's onlyassociation with aircraft industry (to our knowledge) has beenas pilot for Indian airlines and this is first time we heardhis name as an entrepreneur."
Rubbishing the report, Dwivedi said, "Today a reputednewspaper of the country has published a peculiar report. Whatis a matter of deep regret is that those sections of media, inwhose wisdom, most people in the country rely have also nowbegun to believe in sensational news."
Questioning the credibility of WikiLeaks, the Congressgeneral secretary said, "An agency, which had sometime backcollected a lot of so-called information or got it somewhereand published quoting American Embassy.... Till date it hasnot been verified. I do not understand what is the basis ofwhat has been published in the newspaper today."
Raising doubts about the intentions of Assange, Dwivediaccused him of "spreading lies and falsehoods" and said hehimself wants to form a political party.
As the BJP launched a stinging attack on the Congressover the latest cable issue, the Congress general secretaryalso reminded the opposition party of another WikiLeaks cable,which spoke of a big leader of the NDA taking money from theUS intelligence agency CIA, a reference to George Fernandes.