Former Congress MP Kumar Ketkar claims CIA, Mossad behind party's LS poll defeat

Mumbai: Congress leader Kumar Ketkar claimed on Wednesday that the CIA and the Mossad, the spy agencies of the United States and Israel respectively, had plotted the defeat of the Congress in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Speaking at an event organised here by the Congress on the occasion of Constitution Day, the former Rajya Sabha MP said the party won 145 seats in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls and 206 in the general election five years later. Had this trend continued, the Congress could have won 250 seats and retained power convincingly. However, in 2014, the number of seats bagged by the party fell to 44, he pointed out.

"It was then that the game started. It was decided that under no circumstances, the seat tally of the Congress should increase from 206 in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

"There were organisations that acted in a way that 'till the time we do not bring down the Congress from 206, we would not be able to play games here (in India)'.

"One of the organisations was the CIA and another was the Mossad of Israel. Both had decided that they had to do something in India. If a stable Congress government or a Congress-led alliance government came back to power again, they would not have been able to interfere in India and implement their policies," Ketkar, a former journalist, claimed further.

He said the two spy agencies were of the view that a favourable government in New Delhi would be under their control and that there should be a majority government but not of the Congress.

"The Mossad prepared detailed data on states and constituencies. The CIA and the Mossad have detailed data on states and constituencies," Ketkar claimed.

He said there was discontent, disenchantment in 2014 against then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, but not in a way that led to the Congress's humiliating defeat and brought its number of seats down from 206 to 44. The party did not even have enough numbers to claim the leader of opposition's post.

"This was not the mandate of the people," Ketkar said.

He said the British had desired that India should also face Balkanisation.