Wiki-outrage

With WikiLeakss new cache of cables from American diplomatic missions around the world to Washington,containing communication from the Delhi embassy,domestic politics in India is obviously interested. Rahul Gandhis views,reportedly expressed in a conversation with American Ambassador Timothy Roemer,about the threat posed to the country from radicalised Hindu groups would have always created a buzz. But with the cable released on the eve of the Congress partys Burari plenary,the party was forced to address the issue in its agenda in ways it might not have otherwise planned to. The Congress is in power at the Centre,and it will be held accountable for dealing with the terrorism threat,of whatever hue or origin. However,the occasion has also shown how muddled and irresponsible the BJPs politics can get at the mention of radicalised Hindu groups.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi claimed an extremely peculiar eureka moment. He said that he had often questioned why the United States was not tougher on Pakistan for its export of terrorism. Now he knew,because: With the WikiLeaks release,it is known who was guiding the US and providing information about Pakistan,based on which America made an opinion about the country.

The disingenuousness of that response exposes once again the problems the BJPs politics has posed ever since the Malegaon investigation highlighted the threat of terrorism posed by fringe Hindu groups. For a party that says its avers by the priority of national security,it is not just that it has refused to acknowledge and distance itself unequivocally from those and their ideology in the wider Sangh Parivar who are being implicated in acts of terrorist violence. Many of its key leaders have,even more dangerously,sought to create a wider,polarising resentment at the label of Hindu terror. This is why the outrage over the WikiLeaks cable appears that much more manufactured.