By IANS,
New Delhi : Communications Minister Kapil Sibal Sunday called the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) “opportunistic”, after a leaked US diplomatic cable quoted BJP’s Arun Jaitley as saying that Hindutva was “an opportunistic issue” for the party.
“This is very, very serious. This means that a political party (BJP) is using Hindutva as an opportunistic issue. Because of this opportunism thousands lost their lives,” Sibal told reporters here, referring to the “rath yatra” of then BJP president L.K. Advani.
“The Babri masjid issue was also opportunism to mislead the people,” he said.
“The Congress has been saying for years that the BJP is misleading the people. Even its ideology is such that they say something in front of the people and something at their back,” Sibal added.
The minister was referring to a leaked US diplomatic cable of May 2005 which gives a purported account of a conversation between Jaitley and a US embassy official in New Delhi.
According to the cable leaked by whistleblower website WikiLeaks, Jaitley said that Hindu nationalism was an opportunistic issue for the party and something that helped it to garner votes.