Washington: As Hillary Clintons presidential campaign is under the media scanner, an Indian politician is making the headlines for the wrong reasons. Amar Singh, the former general secretary of India’s Samajwadi Party is at the centre of allegations about conflict of interest going back to 2008. Hillary Clinton’s family foundation is accused of accepting a donation of between $1 million and $5 million from Amar Singh, in exchange for supporting a U.S. Senate vote to end an embargo on the trade of U.S. nuclear technology on the subcontinent.
These allegations are not new. They were first levelled against Singh in 2008 in a New York Times report. But the charges got a fresh lease of life after a new book- Clinton Cash, raised questions over the donation made by an individual named Amar Singh to the Clinton Foundation in 2008, around the same time Congress was debating the Indo-US civil nuclear deal.
Peter Schweizer, the book’s author, has said that the size of the donation relative to Singh’s net worth raised questions about whether Singh was the true source of the cash. The New York Post reported on Tuesday, 28 April, citing the book that US Presidential aspirant, Hillary Clinton, who was a Senator in 2008, met with Amar Singh in Washington in September that year to discuss the landmark India-US civil nuclear deal. The report says Amar Singh was lobbying for the deal and former US President Bill Clinton was also present at the meeting. Afterwards Singh posed for photographs with Mr Clinton and told Indian reporters that he had been promised the Democrats wouldn’t block the deal in the US Congress.
Schweizer, according to the Post speculates on whether Singh was a conduit for other powerful interests in India pushing for approval of the nuke deal.
Singh’s donation was treated with suspicion and amusement in India, the paper said noting that Singh, in his own financial disclosure statement filed with the Indian government, reported his total net worth was approximately $5 million. If true, that meant Singh had given between 20 and 100 percent of his entire net worth to the Clinton Foundation! Schweitzer was quoted as saying.
Amar Singh has vehemently denied making the contribution. That is not my donation, I have not given that money to the The Clinton Foundation, Singh told Economic Times. If any friend has done that on my behalf I am grateful to them, but its not mine, he said.
This is a repeat of what Singh said in December 2008 to TOI. At the time, he said, I have nothing to say. I won’t deny anything. But moments later Singh acknowledged that the payment could have been made by someone else on his behalf.
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