BeyondHeadlines News Desk
New Delhi: The appointment of Pranab Mukherjee and not P Chidambaram or Montek Singh Ahluwalia as the finance minister of India during the second term of the Congress party-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) seemed to have caused the United States some heartburn.
According to the latest WikiLeaks cable published by The Hindu, Pranab appointment as the finance minister of India led to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reportedly asking for a thorough check on his background and priorities.
“To which industrial or business groups is Mukherjee beholden? Whom will he seek to help through his policies? What are Mukherjee’s priorities in the upcoming budget…?” Hillary reportedly asked in a cable sent in September 2009 to the US Embassy in New Delhi. She also wanted to know why Mukherjee was chosen as the Finance Minister over Chidambaram and Ahluwalia.
Hillary’s cable suggests that the US would have been more comfortable if either Chidambaram or Ahluwalia had been made the Finance Minister of India.
The US Secretary of State even wanted to know about how Mukherjee got along with the Reserve Bank of India Governor DV Subbarao.
The cable sent of September 14, 2009 also asked the US Embassy to find out Mukherjee’s economic agenda and his views on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s economic reform agenda.
Yet another cable reported in The Hindu, claims that MK Narayanan didn’t exit the national security advisor’s office voluntarily.
US Ambassador to India, Timothy Roemer, reportedly told the US State Department that Congress leader Digvijaya Singh told him that a turf battle between Narayanan and Chidambaram contributed to the his (Narayanan) exit from the post of the National Security Advisor.
