Hillary's awful concerns

The WikiLeaks cable revealing Hillary Clinton's questions on Pranab's business relations, his views on Manmohan's economic agenda and 'who he seeks to help through his policies', is awful. That Ms. Clinton, an important figure in the US administration, is concerned about such matters is revelatory. She even wants to know why P Chidambaram or Montek Singh Ahluwalia was not chosen as the Finance Minister in her mail to the Indian Embassy in New Delhi. Only a naive person would now not see the UPA's policy-making establishment (read Dr. Singh and Ahluwalia) as having close links with America. It is clear from the cable that Washington is concerned about the penetration into Indian markets of US corporates - be it through more FDI, multi-brand retail or SEZs. Interestingly, the same are on the agenda of the PM-Deputy duo.