The main Opposition BJP on Saturday again felt the heat of leaked WikiLeaks cables. In one cable, a US diplomat, while reporting to his government, said senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley had told him that Hindu nationalism was an “opportunistic issue” for his party.

Mr Jaitley, however, denied the remarks attributed to him in the diplomatic cable, but the ruling Congress attacked him, saying, “Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones at others.” The BJP leader on Saturday issued a statement maintaining that he had not used the word “opportunistic”.
In the reported cable Mr Robert Blake, the charge d’affaires at the US embassy in New Delhi, wrote to his government: “Pressed on the question of Hindutva, Jaitley argued that ‘Hindu nationalism will always be a talking point’ for the BJP. However, he characterized this as an opportunistic issue.” The US diplomat had sent the cable after meeting Mr Jaitley on May 6, 2005.
The cable from Mr Blake said, “In India’s Northeast, for instance, Hindutva plays well because of public anxiety about illegal migration of Muslims from Bangladesh. With the recent improvement of Indo-Pak relations, he (Jaitley) added, Hindu nationalism is now less resonant in New Delhi, but that could change with another cross-border terrorist attack, for instance on the Indian Parliament.”
Mr Jaitley, who is now Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha and has been described in the cable as “one of several aspirants to direct the next generation of BJP leadership”, insisted that the word “opportunistic” in reference to Hindutva could be the “diplomat’s own usage”.
Accepting that he had a meeting with the said diplomat, Mr Jaitley said, “The cable reflects my views on cross-border terrorism, illegal infiltration from Bangladesh and the unfair denial of a US visa to the Gujarat chief minister (Narendra Modi). However, the use of the word ‘opportunistic’ in reference to nationalism or Hindu nationalism is neither my view nor my language. It could be the diplomat’s own usage.”
However, the Congress, sensing an opportunity for attack, said the main Opposition party should desist from throwing stones when they themselves live in glass houses. “Chickens are coming home to roost, what goes out wrongly hits back like a boomerang. People living in glass houses are taught in this manner that they should not throw stones at others,” AICC spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said.
Last week the BJP fumbled to explain WikiLeaks revelations that its senior leader, Mr L.K. Advani, had told US diplomats that the party would not harm the Indo-US nuclear deal if it came to power in the 2009 elections even though it opposed the accord.
Moreover, defending Mr Jaitley, BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said, the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha had not used the term “opportunistic” in reference to nationalism or Hindutva.
“We have not denied the existence of talks (between Mr Jaitley and Mr Blake in 2005). We are not even saying that the cables are not verified or unverifiable. But an erroneous impression has been created that the word opportunistic was used,” Mr Javadekar said.