Wikileaks - India

[Bharatvarsh2]

Congress played minority politics post 26/11



New Delhi: The United States believed that the Congress party backed the “outlandish” conspiracy theories over the death of Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare in the 26/11 attack for “crass” political gains.



A diplomatic cable that is part of the latest disclosures by WikiLeaks, reveals that the then US Ambassador to India, David Mulford, wrote to Washington that the Congress, despite having done well in the recent state elections, made a "cynical political calculation" to boost the conspiracy theory.



The secret cable -- sent a month after the Mumbai terrorist attack and revealed, extraordinarily, the day after senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh told The Indian Express that his first "shocked and demoralised" reaction on hearing of Karkare's death had been 'Oh my God, they (rightwing Hindu groups opposed to his probe into the Malegaon bombing) have killed him' -- shows that the US thought that the Congress went on to "implicitly endorse the conspiracy" after initially distancing itself from the then minority affairs minister AR Antulay's "completely unsubstantiated claims".



Days after Karkare's assassination, Antulay had said the chief of the Maharashtra ATS could have been a victim of "terrorism or terrorism plus something".



"Antulay's completely unsubstantiated claims gained support in the conspiracy-minded Indian-Muslim community. Hoping to foster that support for upcoming national elections, the Congress Party cynically pulled back from its original dismissal and lent credence to the conspiracy," Mulford wrote.



However, regardless of later dismissals of Antulay's claim by the Congress, the "Indian Muslim community will continue to believe they are unfairly targeted by law enforcement and that those who investigate the truth are silenced", the Ambassador added.



According to Mulford, the Congress's about-turn from initially dismissing Antulay's statement was based on narrow identity politics.



"As support seemed to swell among Muslims for Antulay's unsubstantiated claims, crass political opportunism swayed the thinking of some Congress Party leaders. What's more, the party made the cynical political calculation to lend credence to the conspiracy even after its recent emboldening state elections victories," reads the envoy's cable.



The Congress, Mulford wrote, "will readily stoop to the old caste/religious-based politics if it feels it is in its interest... While cooler heads eventually prevailed within the Congress leadership, the idea that the party would entertain such outlandish claims proved once again that many party leaders are still wedded to the old identity politics".



Antulay, the cable reads, was "probably bewildered to find that his remarks, similar in vein to what he would have routinely made in the past to attack the BJP, created such a furor this time".



On Saturday, the Congress said that the purported contents of the leaked cable were communication between a US Ambassador and his government, to which it could not react.



"All Ambassadors and High Commissioners keep on giving reports to their respective governments. This is between the two of them (Mulford and the US government). Any responsible party cannot react to claims made by anybody, which are not authenticated," Congress media department chairman Janardan Dwivedi said.



http://news.in.msn.com/national/article....id=4689076