krishnabaaluMr Jaitley’s remarks on “Hindu Nationalism” an opportunistic tool for Congress?
The Hindu dt 26th March 2011 flashed yet another sensational wiki leaks on its front page this time it was on Mr Jaitleys remarks to Robert Blake the Charge at the US Embassy at Delhi in 2005, saying that “Hindu Nationalism” of BJP was “opportunistic”
Predictably this leak has come handy for the waiting Congress and Mr. Kapil Sibal took this ‘opportunistic cable’ to its advantage and slammed Mr Jaitley of double talk. He further demanded that Mr Jaitley be sacked from the Party on this account alone as he mislead the ‘people’
Mr Jaitley reacted to the cable saying that he never used the word “opportunistic” and he was in that context misquoted.
Fine let us take a look in to the original cable lines on this matter.
Going by the exact text of the Cable No 32279 dated 10th May 2005 and followed by the report on THE HINDU , it is clear that Mr. Jaitley never used the word ‘opportunistic’ but the THE HINDU reporter ‘s own remarks and Mr. Blake’s own observation messed up the whole message in the melee. But surely it ought not to have confused the professional reporters of other News Channels and portals unless it was purposeful.
The THE HINDU report opens with the reporters own version saying “In a private conversation with American diplomats in May 2005, senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley articulated the view that Hindu nationalism was an opportunistic issue for the party.
Mr. Arun Jaitley’s exact verbatim as per Cable No 32279 reads as “In India’s north east 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 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”.
This is what exactly the content of the cable No 32279 so far it relates to the topic of BJP’s Hindutva plank was concerned. Nothing more, nothing less. However the dent occurred in the following paragraph of the report of Mr. Suresh Nambiar of The Hindu.
THE HINDU reporter writes further as ‘on the basis of these remarks on Hindutva made by Mr. Jaitley the diplomat concluded that ‘his (Mr. Jaitely) credentials with the Sangh Parivar are weak, and he may not have what it takes to mobilize the BJP base”
This is all what THE HINDU reported on the front Page on 26th March 2011 so far as the ‘Hindutva’ issue was concerned.
At the outset Mr. Jaitley did mention “Hindu Nationalism” but not “Hindutva”
Secondly Mr. Jaitley never used the word ‘opportunistic’ (refer the text of the cable above)
The word ‘opportunistic’ was coined by Mr. Blake while commenting on Mr. Jaitleys observation and it was never used by Mr. Jaitley. Further Mr. Jaitley has confined his observation with the undertone that in North East India and Kashmir the BJP had an opportunity for ‘Hindu Nationalism’ but he never said in a manner to mean that “Hindutva was an ‘opportunistic feature’ for the BJP party in general.
Apart from diverse interpretation of the cable language, in any conversation, any learned leader would not use the word ‘opportunistic’ while commenting on his own party. For that matter the word ‘Opportunistic’ will not be used normally during any chat by any person well versed in English conversation, as ‘opportunistic’ is not a phrase generally used in casual conversations. The word ‘opportunistic’ is a phrase generally used in analytical or critical reports. Hence Mr. Blake has written his comments on the gist of what Mr. Jaitley’s said.
Obviously ‘Opportunistic’ is different from ‘Opportunity’.
Opportunity would mean an occasion or a chance. This is what Mr. Jaitley said that the party had an opportunity for make use of ‘Hindu Nationalism’ in NE and Kashmir rather than in other parts of INDIA at that pertinent point of time. Hence making use of Hindu Nationalism occasionally would not mean that the party has compromised with Hindu Nationalism in general.
Opportunistic would obviously mean taking the occasion or chance not consistently but inconsiderately without a wholehearted commitment to the tenets.
However many leading News Papers and Portals sensationalized the matter with distorted captions as “Hindutva was an opportunistic issue for BJP’
Is not the meaning totally distorted and damage caused?
Krishna Baalu/28-03-2011
