Hillary (D-Punjab)
http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/jun/15clinton.htm
Obama camp attacks Hillary’s Indian links
Rediff News Bureau | June 15, 2007 12:36 IST Last Updated: June 15, 2007 22:08 IST
When United States Senator Barak Obama entered the American
Presidential race, he staked out his turf on the moral high ground
with a call for a new kind of politics, devoid of personal attack and
characterised by debates on the issues that matter.
His campaign apparently has not been listening: Members of the
Senator’s campaign staff have been circulating a document that, in
its title, slightingly refers to Democratic rival Senator Hillary
Clinton as the Democrat from Punjab — a seeming slur on Clinton’s
ties with India and Indian Americans.
The three page ‘opposition research paper’, titled Hillary Clinton (D-
Punjab)’s Personal Financial and Political Ties, which has begun
circulating in the blogosphere, criticises the Clintons’ links to
India in an effort and attacks her record on outsourcing, and on
protecting American jobs.
The D-Punjab reference apparently refers to a joke Senator Clinton
made last year, at a fund-raiser hosted by New York-based hotelier
and top Democratic fund-raiser Sant Singh Chatwal. ‘I can certainly
run for the Senate seat in Punjab and win easily,’ she had said on
that occasion.
The document references the Clintons’ recently released financial
disclosure forms, to underline former President Bill Clinton’s
acceptance of $300,000 for paid speeches from Cisco Systems, a
company that, the document notes, has ’shifted hundreds of jobs from
America to India.’
It further says Hillary Clinton accepted almost $60,000 in
contributions from employees of Cisco Systems, ‘which laid off
American workers to hire Indian techies.’
The document points out that Clinton ‘invested tens of thousands’ in
an Indian bill payment company — a reference to the former
president’s disclosure form that lists between $15,001 and $50,000
worth of stock in Easy Bill Limited, an Indian company.
The Obama campaign, ironically, is currently engaged in floating
chapters of ‘South Asians for Obama’ across the country. The
document, however, insidiously suggests that it is not all kosher to
cozy up to the Indian community.
The document begins thus: ‘The Clintons have reaped significant
financial rewards from their relationship with the Indian community,
both in their personal finances and Hillary’s campaign fundraising.
‘Hillary Clinton, who is the co-chair of the Senate India Caucus, has
drawn criticism from anti-offshoring groups for her vocal support of
Indian business and unwillingness to protect American jobs.
‘Bill Clinton has invested tens of thousands of dollars in an Indian
bill payment company, while Hillary Clinton has taken tens of
thousands from companies that outsource jobs to India. Workers who
have been laid off in upstate New York might not think that her
recent joke that she could be elected to the Senate seat in Punjab is
that funny.’
Sant Chatwal merits three whole paragraphs in the document. After
listing various fund-raisers hosted by Chatwal, as also steel magnate
Lakshmi Mittal and the Hindujas, the document alleges Chatwal owed
the city of New York more than $2 million in back taxes; that he fled
prosecution for fraud in India; that he was arrested during his visit
to India with then President Bill Clinton and charged with defrauding
the New York City branch of the Bank of India [Get Quote] out of $9
million he borrowed in 1994.
The document says Chatwal posted bail, then fled to Vienna, eluding
the authorities. It says, further, that in 1996, the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corp charged Chatwal, then a director with the bank, with
obtaining improper loans from the First New York Bank for Business,
causing the bank to lose more than $25 million.
‘Chatwal, who was a director of the bank, arranged more than $14
million in loans to himself and his businesses, often with no
collateral, says the FDIC. He didn’t repay the loans and the bank
failed,’ the document says, citing a story in New York’s Daily News
newspaper of November 24, 2002.
The Clinton campaign declined comment.