Business
Role of NSC in Dabhol project questioned
By Sridhar Krishnaswami
WASHINGTON
JAN. 25.
Even as the first sparks have started flying on Capitol Hill on Enron, questions are being raised in the media over the role of the National Security Council intervening on behalf of the Houston based energy firm with respect to the Dabhol project in India.
"The National Security Council is the President's nerve centre for international crises and strategy. For a moment last year it also acted as a sort of concierge service for Enron Chairman, Kenneth Lay and India's National Security Advisor, Brajesh Mishra,'' The Washington Post says in a report.
According to The Post, based on documents released by the Overseas Private Investment Corporation under a Freedom of Information Act request, the NSC had sent an e-mail last June saying that Mr. Mishra would "be willing to meet with Mr. Lay and the bankers... but only at the residence. Pls let me know your decision on this soonest.''
A second e-mail also from the NSC added, "We are not involved in arranging any meetings for Mr. Lay... I will ask the Indians if he is invited to the dinner. Also the Indians did not agree to see the lenders. I will go at them again, but if they come around it might be for a Friday meeting, and not the dinner.''
What has begun to surface is the level of involvement of the NSC on behalf of Enron even if the White House continues to insist that no wrongdoing has taken place. Further the Bush administration has been saying that getting involved on behalf of American economic interests is not something unique for a Bush administration _ the predecessor administration had also actively intervened on behalf of American interests.
But what is raising eyebrows as far as the Dabhol project is the level of intervention of senior administration officials including the Vice President, Dick Cheney, who raised the issue with the leader of the Opposition, Sonia Gandhi, who visited Washington last June.
The surprising aspect to some has been that it was the NSC as opposed to the State or the Commerce departments which has been the main commercial advocacy. "...the norm would have been NSC participation in a discussion rather than the NSC chairing it,'' Daniel Tarullo, a former member of the Clinton National Economic Council has said.
According to The Post, the e-mail exchanges indicated Mr. Cheney's plan to raise the matter of the Dabhol project again with India's External Affairs Minister, Jaswant Singh, last October. The NSC apparently sent a list of "Dabhol talking points'' to the Vice President's staff for inclusion.
Significantly, before the last November meeting between the President, George W Bush and the Indian Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, an e-mail apparently from the NSC to the OPIC was suggesting that a resolution was close. "Do you still want to sign an MOU with the Indians or announce one during Vajpayee's visit,'' the e-mail asked. Mr.Bush was to have raised the Enron and Dabhol project with Mr. Vajpayee, but the issue was taken off the list because the problems of the energy giant had become public.
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